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■ APH 13 1910 

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Glass _ 
Book. 



12_ 






Prose and Verse 





CLAUDIA BODDIE MONEY 



Prose and Verse 



by 
Claudia Boddie Money 



New York 

The Holliswood Press 
1909 



7635^ 



I 



.0*Vl 



Copyright, 1909, By 
HERNANDO DE SOTO MONEY 



KecQiv«d from 

CopyHght OfficQ. 

APR .4 



THE PREMIER PRESS 
NEW YORK 



PREFACE. 

To worthily and adequately characterize my 
Mother is beyond my power, for I am but the 
decimal that is a point between the fractions of 
her greatness. How can her mind, her heart, her 
soul, be comprehended by my part of her? 
Nature endowed her richly with all her favoritism 
could give; an expression of exceeding tenderness, 
a fascinating charm and grace of form, a lithe and 
graceful motion full of energetic power. Her 
laugh came freely from the heart, from her sym- 
pathy she freely gave you of her tears; and while 
she had great power of wit, she oftener employed 
the gentler humor. Her heart was like the bosom 
of a lake upon which played the shadow and the 
sun. Her keenest sorrow was another's pain; she 
suffered sorely from her borrowed grief s— her own 
endured with woman's fortitude. She gave of her 
love as the ocean gives up to the sun for plenteous 
rain, the which descending, it returned to her. Her 
husband was her hero, and her ardent lover all her 
days. Her sprightliness of mind drew quick response 
from his fine spontaneity. She had an imagery which 
found expression in infinite variety — luxuriant ideals 
to which she gave expression quick and strong in 



Prose and Verse 

verse and prose. A few of these, the only complete 
productions, are found in this memorial volume 
which I preface with this simple tribute of my love. 
It was her wish that they should be preserved, not 
to evince her talent, but to be distributed among her 
children and their children for Remembrance sake. 
My mother read with perspicuity; no literary 
field was unknown to her. Self-improvement was 
her passion, and throughout my Father's life-work, 
covering more than two full score years, his 
avaricious mind has often found its food in what 
she knew : — a thought, a fancy, a fact or argu- 
ment, reminding when mayhap he had forgotten, 
her muse was quick, whenever his muse, perhaps, 
was slow. She took an interest in politics for him 
and was a student of the science of government. 
There was no thought of self in this; she was no 
woman suffragist ; she was content to be his aid and 
gentle secretary of his toil. My mother was by 
nature and cultivation pre-eminent in music. Her 
voice was of the dearest tenderness that ever quiv- 
ered air with sweet vibration! I hear it among the 
gay young voices that she led in choir and concert 
long ago; I hear her inspirational touch upon the 
organ of her church. And from her passionate love 
of all the beautiful in all the world, which had for 
her a vastly more than visible meaning; and from 
her bright fancy and love of the ideal, whereby she 

6 



By Claudia Boddie Money- 
caught Things Passing in the Air, she fashioned her 
melodies, improvising with wonderful facility and 
interpreting every emotion. She was familiar with 
the music of the old Masters, and how often have 
I heard her sing the old songs of the heart : "I love 
you, 'tis the simplest way the thing I feel to tell!" 
or "Come rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer/' 
my father sitting by, an enraptured listener! And 
if the words of some song were forgotten, he in- 
stantly supplied them and the song went on! 

She was a poet, a musician and a botanist and 
never surrendered her passion for flowers, music 
and literature, but her dominant love was of home. 
She possessed so high a sense of duty and responsi- 
bility that her life was kept over-flowing with per- 
formance. She employed these talents not only for 
her pleasure, but with the sweet and furtive design 
of holding all together in the home. She was 
wonderfully energetic and in a thousand ways 
busied herself in doing the practical things around 
the home; that constant care and tender watch- 
fulness over comfort and pleasure; that partici- 
pation in the pleasures, hopes and aspirations of 
her children, her sympathy for their failures and 
praise for their accomplishments; her plain, helpful 
talks with them, her welcome to their friends at 
all times; the freedom of the house, the hospitality 
— all proved the wisdom of her plan and the influ- 

7 



Prose and Verse 

ence she exerted upon her family. They never 
sought the pleasures beyond the home, because here 
were greater pleasures. There were no prohibi- 
tions in our home and no one was afraid; no sur- 
veillance and no lack of trust; there was no need 
of evasion or of coward furtiveness; there was no 
fear except the Father's disapproval and distress 
of the dear Mother-God. 

These were the law, and those of Medes and 
Persians were not better obeyed. 

My Mother had a high moral, mental and physi- 
cal courage, abhorred meanness of spirit or act, 
cant and hypocrisy, which were all so opposite to 
her great nobleness. She was a member of the 
Christian church, her religious convictions served 
to repose her soul, not to dispute nor to confute. 
She was strong in the essentials of the faith, and 
her belief flowered in multifarious charities. She 
took an active interest in the United States Life 
Saving Service. She sought and succored the poor 
and afflicted wherever she lived ; she had a hand for 
their needs, an ear for their griefs and a balm for 
their wounds. She nursed my father throughout 
his life with all the loyalty and self-denial and 
tender love of woman. 

Oh, what love was there, what fortitude! Oh, 
what great heart, Thou Beatitude! 

She denied herself that she might give to others; 

8 



By Claudia Boddie Money- 
she had the great heart of the Seeker for affirmative 
good and not a mere will for perfunctoriness of 
duty. She was never Custom's slave, but acted 
wholly from the heart; she was not cast from the 
customary mold, but was distinctly sui generis. 

And thus to the end. 

Thank God, she left no shadow behind and never 
stood between the sun and other human being; she 
never blotted any page ; never stifled any hope ; never 
bruised another soul; never offered temptations; 
never wavered any steps; never failed of succor, 
nor of comfort, nor of friendly grief, nor of gen- 
erous praise, nor of appreciation, nor of inspiration. 

And for this matchless mother I would say : 

Woman is the nest of the world and we are the brood; 

There is no care-taker like her mother-hood. 

I borrow from Poe, the gentle simile, 

That God is ubiquitous through her divinity 

Whatever of good man has fashioned into law 

Her teaching and her presence influenced him to draw. 

Whatever of evil man stubbornly wrought, 

It was contrary to every principle she taught: — 

Against her nature, her entreaty, hopes and prayers, 

With a ruthless disregard of expostulating tears. 

Where his own will prevailed, it was might over right, 

As he shut his eyes to her, it was dark over light. 

When he persisted with face to the sod, 

She reached out her hand to him, face turned to God. 

9 



Prose and Verse 

I reject that of Genesis which makes her the cause 

Of God's disinheritance; this very clause 

In God's will is precedent to bequest 

Of procreation, life, labor, love, doubly-blessed! 

There is not a Christ-principle but that she 

Reflects it — has always and will eternally! 

If there were one of God's laws I would dare to scan, 

I would exempt Mothers from whatever plan 

There is or may be for possible damnation, 

And grant unto them universal salvation. 

George Peirson Money. 



io 



Impressions of Hawaii nei, 

OR THE 

United Kingdom of Hawaii 



'Hawaii nei — of many one thou art, 

Each scattered fragment an essential part. 

No jewelled setting is more fair than thee, 
O em'rald cluster in a beryl sea! 

Thy life is music — Fate, the notes prolong! 
Each isle a stanza and the whole a song." 

— Geo. H. Stewart. 



UNDER the administration of the Earl of 
Sandwich, geography was enriched with 
many valuable and splendid discoveries; 
and none was more important than this most north- 
erly and interesting Polynesian group called in his 
honor, the "Sandwich Islands." Their position in 
regard to the United States, makes them, at present 
— 1876 — of peculiar and notable interest. 

Only eight of these eleven islands are inhabited; 
and they cover an area of nearly six thousand seven 

11 



Prose and Verse 

hundred and forty square miles. Hawaii, the east- 
ernmost and largest, is about two hundred and 
fifty-five geographical miles in circumference. 

On the northeast the coast is flat and low and the 
acclivity of the inland parts very gradual. These 
are covered with the bread-fruit tree, noble palms 
of many varieties, great tree-ferns, sugar and 
banana plantations, rice fields and kalo patches; 
while the seashore is fringed with the slender, fruit- 
ful cocoa-palm, that unfailing symbol of the tropics. 

On doubling the eastern part of the island, we 
find Mauna-Loa, on the side of which is situated 
the dreadful volcano of Kilauea. The solitude and 
desolation are awful. The ground is covered with 
cinders, and great black tracks of hardened lava 
mark the course it took not many years ago towards 
Hilo — a burning, bright and irresistible flood of fire, 
which burst from its huge crater and devastated 
everything in its path. Above this beautiful city 
of Hilo, with its lovely homes, blooming gardens 
and fertile fields, stands this fearful volcano, ever 
threatening that horrible possible fate which may 
overtake her in some future eruption. 

The southern promontory looks very much of 
the same volcanic character; the projecting headland 
being composed of broken and craggy rocks piled 
irregularly upon one another and terminating in 
sharp points. Oahu, whose capital is Honolulu, is 

12 



By Claudia Boddie Money 
not very fertile. Much of it is rocky and unfit for 
cultivation. Maui is very productive, and here are 
the most magnificent sugar plantations in the world. 
The yield of sugar on this island and Hawaii is 

enormous. . 

I saw ordinary stalks of cane fourteen inches in 
circumference, from twelve to fourteen feet long 
and weighing sixteen pounds. There is neces- 
sarily a limited area of cultivable land, and 
much of that is given to Kalo, rice, bananas, 
and other small crops. There are found here the 
most attractive and useful trees of the tropics. 
The bread-fruit tree bears plentifully; the shin- 
ing-leaved tamarind bends beneath the weight 
of its brown pods, and oranges and other tropi- 
cal fruits fill the air with delicious fragrance. 
Ferns are especially abundant and various here. 
Amid mosses, on the banks of cool, shaded rivulets, 
in the clefts on the mountain side, on its bold face 
everywhere, like the grasses and flowers of our own 
natural growth, their soft, lovely, luxuriant masses 
hide the desolation of the rocks. On the grand and 
gloomy extinct volcano "Haleakala" or "Sun- 
House" grows luxuriantly the aspodium Halea- 
Kalenee, and it has its home nowhere else in the 
world. On this island one hundred and fifty ferns 

are native. 

The Acona district is noted for the wonderful 

13 



Prose and Verse 

salubrity of the air. It is so dry, no decomposition 
is possible, and consumptives find unfailing relief 
in its delicious atmosphere. On Molokai, lepers 
are confined; it is inaccessible except one passage 
opening on the sea which is strictly guarded. The 
inhabitants of these islands are closely watched, and 
the first visible sign of the dread disease consigns 
the victim to this prison whence none escape. These 
unfortunates have all possible bodily and spiritual 
comfort and are more tenderly cared for than the 
afflicted poor of our own country. Lanai, in the 
hands of the Mormons, is an extremely prosperous 
settlement, and they represent one-sixth of the 
population of the whole group. 

The islands are universally volcanic ; and on none 
of them is true granite, real porphyry, or primitive 
christous found. No coal, precious metals or gems 
have ever been discovered, and the calcareous sub- 
stances are a deposit of shells and corals from the 
bosom of a deep sea. 

The physical beauties of the Hawaiian Islands 
cannot be exaggerated; this land where "eternal 
Summer reigns" and which, in the words of her elo- 
quent poet, King Kamehameha, "rests like a water- 
lily on the swelling bosom of the Pacific.' , So 
beautiful indeed are the natural features and so 
delightful the climate, it is almost impossible to 
restrain the expression of the poetic fervor they 

14 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

inspire. The variation in temperature at all sea- 
sons is only twenty degrees, from seventy to eighty 
degrees Fahrenheit, and the difference in the heat 
of day and the coolness of night is ten degrees. 
There are no sudden weather changes, no great 
storms, and such as occur are of short duration. 

Four-fifths of the business interests of the Islands 
are in the hands of Americans. The Minister to 
Washington has always been of American lineage, 
if not born on American soil. 

Many important Government positions are held 
by our people, and it would be folly indeed for the 
United States to lose her hold upon them, for many 
reasons. They are of great importance politically 
and commercially ; and the American influence there 
has always been regarded by the other foreign ele- 
ment with some apprehension. They also afford 
the most convenient place of refreshment for ships, 
and for a harbor in stress of weather, they are, 
indeed, an oasis in an ocean desert. The Islands 
import from the United States nearly everything 
used in the arts; and agriculture; all domestic ani- 
mals, all building material, leather, tobacco, and all 
those food products which she does not raise. We 
receive sugar and other natural products, and they 
are all free of duty. 

The aborigines are reputed to have been of mag- 
nificent stature, athletic, bold and warlike. Tradi- 

15 



Prose and Verse 

tion tells of giants in times past; and there are 
occasionally found at present, men and women of 
enormous proportions. They are generally of 
medium size, well made, walk gracefully, run nim- 
bly and are capable of bearing great fatigue. In 
youth they are of yellowish-brown complexion, and 
often quite handsome. Their noses are high, but 
flattened at the base. Their eyes are dark with 
discolored whites, the hair is black and generally 
curly; they have a keen sense of the ludicrous, are 
honest, and never treacherous. In temperament 
they are courageous yet seem to have imbibed a 
great deal of that eternal calm which pervades their 
island home. On the islands they are somewhat 
lazy; but are rather noted for thrift and industry 
among the Mormons in Utah, where they some- 
times emigrate. They have very small hands and 
feet and perfect symmetry of limb, until they lose 
their shape from over-flesh and they become very 
dark and splotched as they lose their youth. They 
are poetical in nature, for imagery and fancy are 
peculiar to Eastern nations; and in Hawaii all 
Nature seems to be ever out on a holiday wrapped 
in her gayest robes. 

The smiling scenery, every tint of the sky, the 
odoriferous balm of the flowers, the sombre back- 
ground of mountain-chains, the deep purple of the 
tropic ocean, immeasurable, profound rivers, whose 

16 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

crystal clear waters dash down the rocks in limpid 
cascades, or steal through masses of feathery ferns 
— the tangled verdure of flower-laden vines, all 
delight the heart of these children of the South. 

It is commonly believed, that the Sandwich Is- 
landers were originally Malays. It is not difficult 
to conceive how, at some time, these uninhabited 
islands received settlers from the East, who had 
been driven by contrary winds into ocean currents, 
which carried them to their shores. They are the 
same as the natives of New Zealand, Society and 
Friendly Isles; for in their manners, customs and 
general resemblance, they are absolutely identical. 
From what continent they emigrated, and by what 
steps they have spread through so large a space, 
those who are curious in disquisitions of this nature 
may not find it hard to conjecture. They bear 
strong marks of affinity to some of the Indian tribes 
that inhabit the Ladrone and Caroline Islands, and 
the same affinity may be traced among the Baltas 
and Malays. 

When this separation happened, is not easy to 
ascertain; but it was not very lately, probably, for 
they were quite populous when discovered by the 
whites, although in early times they destroyed most 
of their female offspring, and the women were not 
prolific. They have no tradition of their origin, 
but what is fabulous. The late King, Kalakaua, 

17 



Prose and Verse 

believed and tried industriously to prove that they 
were descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. 

The sea about these Islands abounds in fish. The 
squid, or devil-fish, is a common article of food 
dried, but generally the more delicate fish are eaten 
raw. The native animals consist of hogs and dogs. 
The latter is a peculiarly small and mean looking 
breed and is used as an article of food highly prized 
by the Kanakas. This miserable little canine is 
baked in a rough oven of stones buried under- 
ground, and is wrapped in the huge leaf of the 
wild ginger, or Ti plant, which is tough and aroma- 
tic; so that the little fellow comes out most deli- 
ciously spiced; and no native would exchange him 
for the finest dish civilization can concoct. At a 
native feast given us by the King, he asked to be 
allowed to help me to some suckling pig cooked in 
Hawaiian style. I replied : "A foot, if you please, 
your Majesty." I had tried a bite of the raw fish, 
and was nearly upset by the champagne I was 
forced to drink to get rid of the abominable, nause- 
ous taste; and I was determined not to be betrayed 
into eating a piece of Hawaiian dog. Like-like, 
the King's youngest sister, reclined near us, and 
I was horrified to see her dispose of a quantity of 
live, squirming shrimps, without a qualm. Their 
chief food is made from the Aurum esadentum. 
Raw, it is deadly poisonous. It is prepared in two 

18 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

ways : to make a sort of bread they peel and mash 
the root and bake it in their rude stone ovens; it 
is very much like a tasteless mealy sweet potato. 
This is called Kalo or Taro; but the natives relish 
above all things Poi, which is the other method of 
preparing it. The root is baked, the skin peeled off 
with a sharp shell, and pounded in a flat wooden 
tray, and is finally put in a calabash and set away 
to ferment. It soon becomes an acid, pasty mass 
of a bluish-white color; it is very nutritious and 
wholesome, and it is amusing to watch a party of 
the natives squatting around a dish of Poi, dip- 
ping their fore-fingers successively into it, and with 
a dexterous twist of the hand carrying it safely to 
their lips, and smacking them with all the de- 
light of a gourmet. Their mode of cultivation is 
unique; and as forty feet square planted in Kalo 
will support a man for a year, living is not a 
problem to this lucky people. When the root is 
pulled up, the top, containing the bud, is returned 
to the same hole, and water is turned on it to the 
depth of several inches, and it is kept thoroughly 
saturated for eleven months and without further 
attention is ready to cut again. 

The Ohia, a native apple, is lovely to look upon, 
but is dry and without any flavor whatever. The 
Ohelo is a sort of whortle-berry, and is dedicated 
to Pele, the goddess of Kilanea. All fruits indi- 

19 



Prose and Verse 

genous to tropical, and semi-tropical, and temperate 
zones reach the highest excellence, except the peach. 
The cotton plant becomes a tree, with a very long 
fine staple. The Koa and Kou are the chief woods. 
The natives formerly made their boats and eating 
utensils, and other objects for which a hard, close- 
grained wood was required, of the Koa. When the 
earliest navigators came to Hawaii, they found 
large forests of sandal-wood; but it took the elder 
Astor to discover its great value. He completely 
denuded the mountains of the fragrant trees, and 
thereby made an immense addition to his growing 
fortune. Both men and women wear loose clothing. 
The latter have only two garments. The outer 
is nothing more than a mother-hubbard, but in 
Hawaiian language it is a holokou. It was a com- 
promise with the missionaries, who declared they 
must wear something, and this was the result. The 
lower Hawaiian woman still walks with untram- 
meled limbs and bare feet; her head covered with 
a great hat of braided cocoa-palm leaves and 
adorned always with wreaths of leaves or flowers. 
They wear festoons or wreaths of the sweet scented 
maile, or mountain laurel, and roses, wild ginger- 
blossoms and other odorous flowers. They are 
called lets and are worn by both sexes. To throw 
them around the neck of another is to express 
friendship and kindly feeling. 

20 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

For more than fifty years the light of the Chris- 
tian faith has been let in upon the waste places in 
the Southern Pacific. Protestants, Catholics and 
Mormons have made converts of this whole people. 
It seems that they have abandoned their native 
religion; but it will never really die, and many are 
often found secretly worshiping their old gods. 
Christianity is too spiritual for such natures. When 
it was first established in Hawaii these benighted 
people had no moral laws, there were no family 
ties; marriage was unknown except among the 
chiefs, which was instituted for the perpetuation 
of the reigning family. The offspring of the royal 
women only could inherit princely honors, for the 
paternity of the child was too uncertain. Originally 
a fine race physically, they were spiritually sunk 
into a moral obliquity that in course of time became 
so dark as to react upon itself. The first glimmer- 
ing ray of civilization that penetrated the black 
clouds of brutal ignorance in which they were sub- 
merged found many of the natives seeking the 
fountain-head of this light; and when the mission- 
aries went among them their idols were already 
overthrown, their priests, led by their Queen, the 
most enthusiastic in this unprecedented iconoclastic 
work. While there are some notable instances of 
Christian faith among them, as a rule they still 
have a lingering tenderness for many of their old 

21 



Prose and Verse 

religious superstitions. They were never cannibals: 
they buried their female children alive, made away 
with the old women and burned their prisoners of 
war on the sacrificial stone, but at no time ate human 
flesh. They are exceedingly hospitable, and in the 
South Pacific, where nature has been so prodigal of 
her good things, the poor grass hut of the aboriginal 
is a sure haven of rest to any wanderer asking food 
and shelter. The last morsel of food, the clothing 
from their bodies is offered the weary guest, and 
the tired limbs lomilomied (massaged) until all 
fatigue has disappeared. 

To intercourse with foreigners, Hawaii owes all 
her misfortunes; her toads, her fleas, her mosqui- 
toes, and her malaria. 

Here is no trail of the serpent and no deadly 
beast haunts the forest. Their numbers have been 
decimated, through measles, small-pox and other 
horrible diseases, and it is the Caucasian and the 
Chinaman who have carried these ills into this 
earthly paradise. This is the inevitable law which 
no thinking man disallows. It is Civilization's 
method of wiping out Island races. 

Among the natives are found many of both sexes 
of great refinement and culture. The masses do 
not speak English, and their literature is confined 
to the Bible and hymn book, the only books trans- 
lated into their own language, which was an un- 

22 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

written one until the American missionaries 
arranged its alphabet and vocabulary. 

A fine college at Punahou, near Honolulu, sends 
out every year finished native scholars in literature 
and all the professions. 

Royalty, at the time of my visit, was not very 
difficult of approach, and the undeviating etiquette 
of a real court did not abash me, as it might have 
after David assumed a crown and established cere- 
monies in accordance with his newly acquired dig- 
nity. King Kalakaua was a man of fine presence. 
In complexion, he was as dark as a mulatto, his 
eyes were black, with discolored whites, his hair 
side-whiskers and moustache black and curly. He 
was tall and large; and a fine linguist, fond of 
politics, and the author of an interesting and vol- 
uminous work upon Hawaii. His Queen, Kapiolani, 
was of pleasing countenance. In her early years 
she was a very handsome woman, but age has 
coarsened her features, destroyed her symmetry and 
blackened her skin. No children were ever born to 
this couple. 

Liliokalani, the eldest sister of the King, was 
heir to the throne. The daughter of his youngest 
sister is the present claimant and is the last of her 
line. When I was a visitor to the Island, Lilioka- 
lani was a woman of fine character; handsome, in- 
tellectual and talented, and greatly beloved by her 

23 



Prose and Verse 

race, and much respected by all foreigners. Her 
husband was then living, and was Governor of 
Pahu and Hawaii. Governor Dominis was a small, 
wiry Italian-looking man, a descendant of a Boston 
whaling captain. Kaulani, who is now making an 
effort to establish her right to the throne, is a very 
pretty dark girl, educated abroad, and said to be 
a lovely character. 

David was an elected king, having defeated 
Emma, the widow of the last of the Kamehameha 
dynasty, who was fifth in the line. 

The first king of this family was a youthful chief- 
tain at the time of Cook's first voyage to the Islands, 
and protected him for a long time from the natives 
by power of the tabu. He was regarded at first 
as a resurrected god of the Hawaiians; but his 
treachery and ill conduct aroused them upon one 
occasion to such fury they attacked him in his boat, 
and being pierced with a spear, he gave voice to his 
agony in groans which satisfied the savages of his 
humanity, and they summarily dispatched him. 
This tabu was the great power by which the chiefs 
and priests governed their people. Any object 
placed under this ban could not be approached under 
penalty of death. Meat, and indeed almost every 
good and pleasant thing, was prohibited to the 
women, who were little more than slaves. 

The Government is a constitutional monarchy, 

24 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

and the Houses of Lords and Common sit in the 
same chamber. The population consists of repre- 
sentatives of every nation and race; but the Ameri- 
can ascendancy is acknowledged with jealousy by 
all others. During the reign of Liliokalani she tried 
to dispense with some of the Yankee influence. We 
know the success that attended her efforts. The 
Americans have proved an "old man of the moun- 
tain'' to her. 

The whites are nearly altogether of the best class. 
(I except the Portuguese and other white laborers.) 
They are wealthy, highly educated, cultured, 
travelled, and inexpressibly charming, and generous 
hospitality is characteristic of all who dwell in this 
enchanting land. 

I cannot leave this prolific subject without some 
meagre account, at least, of the delight of a voyage 
to Hawaii and a slight description of the Islands, 
and the pleasure of a sojourn upon their lovely 
shores. A full history of the people and country 
would require a volume, and many have been writ- 
ten by competent and eloquent historians. I began 
my voyage across the Pacific about the middle of 
September. Leaving San Francisco we steamed out 
of the Bay in charge of the pilot, who carried us 
through the dangers of what is called the "Heads," 
tumultuous waters just outside San Francisco Bay. 
For many days at a time we wearied with the 

25 



Prose and Verse 

monotony of a glassy sea. The blinding ripples 
of the water from morning until night was abso- 
lutely distracting with its excess of sparkle. The 
waves had not force enough to break into foam, the 
long heaving swell being only sufficient to remind 
us that we rode on the broad-backed rollers of the 
pulsing ocean. 

My chief delights were the contemplation of the 
blue, never ending sea and the pomp of the sun- 
sets, and the glory of the starry heavens, which 
were incomparably brighter than I had ever seen 
before. As I gazed in the slumbrous Summer nights 
upon the exquisite heavens unfolded in all their 
grandeur, I fancied it might be an enchanted world, 
where dreaming idleness might revel; where no 
tempest-shocks of fortune could rudely disturb, 
where sorrow could not reach, nor change dispel 
the charm; and whether from the luminous misty 
distance fell the light of new stars, whose tender 
radiance came gleaming over the waters in undula- 
tions of light, or the moon arose, serene and full- 
orbed, or hurrying masses of nebulous cloud 
dimmed for a moment Her lustre, my eyes never 
feasted upon such loveliness. God's benison of 
quiet and peace seemed to rest upon the dark blue 
firmament above, and the azure hollows of the 
darker waters beneath, and only the rushing 
steamer, ploughing the waves spoke of life and 

26 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

motion. For twenty-two hundred miles, during 
eight days and nights, no sail, no friendly glimpse 
of land broke the unvarying sameness; no change 
to mark the scene, except the noiseless whirl of sea 
birds in our wake, or lazy whale, that in the distance 
sunned his enormous length upon the surface, and 
all bound in by a horizon whose circumference was 
marked by a circle of light and color. It was about 
the hour of sunset when we reached Honolulu, the 
capital of this group. 

No time could have been more propitious for 
entering this island paradise. As we approached 
the city a dazzling scene burst into view. The 
sky was suffused with golden splendor, and in bold 
relief, upon the foreground were the masts of 
twenty ships, the cocoa-palms reared their straight 
trunks sixty feet, and soft against the sky lifted 
their tufted heads. Beneath us the blue waters 
lashed the ship, and fell away baffled and white with 
angry foam. To the right, the surf rushed in irre- 
sistible force upon the coral reef that runs out some 
distance into the sea; and further on, giant rocks, 
verdure-crowned; and above all, rising in solemn 
grandeur, desolate, dismantled, gray, from out the 
water's edge, the extinct volcano, the great "Punch 
Bowl," dead, its awful fires, its desolating floods of 
molten lava no longer a threat to "Oahu." Within 
the memory of man no muttering hum of danger 

27 



Prose and Verse 

from the black depths of this crater has been heard. 
A light-house to the left gave evidence that even 
in this fine Bay of Honolulu danger is not unknown. 
In front, eager faces greeted us from the wharf, 
while around the ship swam numerous naked native 
boys, attracting with peculiar cries the attention of 
the passengers detained for custom-duties. It is 
very amusing to watch their wonderful feats in the 
water, and as the pennies were flung into them they 
rushed headlong after them, vieing for possession, 
and were almost instantly back again, the coin be- 
tween their teeth, with countenances as unperturbed 
as a porpoise. They sit upright in the water, pad- 
dling with one hand and eagerly watch the crowd 
upon the deck. Every native is at home on these 
liquid ways, which are as dear to them as the coun- 
try lanes to the peasantry of England. 

It was some time before I could accustom myself 
to my position, to realize that I was in the 
middle of the Pacific Ocean, upon an island, the vast 
upheaval of some submarine volcano, of molten 
lava, scoria, and ashes, disintegrated and decom- 
posed by Nature's wonderful agents, sun, rain and 
wind, until time had passed in cycles over this 
jagged mass, and smoothed away its ruggedness, 
and brought fertility from the barrenness, and 
clothed by degrees the desolation in the beauty of 
eternal verdure; for in Hawaii Nature never doffs 

28 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

its evergreen Summer garments ; but forever springs 
in emerald beauty from the fruitful soil. The trade 
winds only caress the gorgeous flora into fuller 
beauty, and the magnificent tropical trees into greater 
glory. My last thought on going to sleep, was the 
possible destruction which might await its beauty, 
from the apparently extinct volcanoes found upon 
almost every island of the group. 

I was aroused soon after retiring by the sound 
of music, and it pleased me to fancy that the days 
of Neptune and his hosts of nymphs and sirens 
had come back, and from coral-caves and ocean- 
beds had brought me songs of welcome to their fair 
realm. The hour, the light of the moon more bril- 
liant in this latitude than elsewhere, regally glori- 
fied as She is in the tropics; the soft and billowy 
pearl-grey mist that floated above, the sweet faint 
odors of innumerable flowers filling the air, the 
mountains vague in the distance, upon which the 
restless waves of the sea along the shore reared 
in swift passionate movements, the sea an unending 
plain of glittering silver catching here and there 
a ray of moon-light, and glancing like stars upon 
the swell of the billows, the witchery of the whole 
scene, made an enchantment which thrills me to re- 
call. This was not the music, however, of the 
mystical Sea-king, but the King's glee singers were 
chanting songs of welcome in their own weird 

29 



Prose and Verse 

tongue, amid the splendors of a tropic night, while 
the billows rolled upon the coral-paved shore, and 
moaned a monotone to the clear sweet notes. 

This is a sleepy place; a drowsy tendency to re- 
main always inactive makes existence sometimes 
irksome. It does not seem as if the pulse could 
quicken in this charmed air. There is no restless- 
ness, no hurrying. The heavens shine down in a 
fervid glow of light and beauty, while soft airs from 
the sea make perpetual coolness. 

Oh! the weird charm of those summer days and 
nights, when, under bowers of close intertwined 
trees of Paradise, with their red banners of bloom ; 
and sapontianas, covered with pink and crimson 
flowery tufts ; and mangoes hanging with heavy yel- 
low fruit; and the alga roba dropping its black 
pods upon the emerald sward; the royal orchestra, 
with silver-toned instruments made melody. How 
often I have listened to the grand march from 
"Faust," the deep-rolling chords of the "March 
Funebre" from Chopin, the tender melting sweet- 
ness of "II Trovatore," with rapture, and chilled, as 
the solemn, awful national hymn of the Hawaiians 
like some chant caught from rumbling volcanos and 
ocean dirges, calm, slow and majestic, seem to 
say — 

"Thy days, ah, Hawaii, are numbered. The 
slender thread that binds the gentle lives of thy 

30 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

children will break ere long. Thy tree-fringed 
streets of Honolulu, the fernery of thy lovely Mani, 
the magnificence of the awful grandeur of thy fiery 
mountain will not know thy presence when another 
century rolls her years by, freighted with woe to 
thee!" 

Beautiful Honolulu! with thy perfection in na- 
ture, thy charming interiors, thy cloudless skies, 
thy kind hearts and delicious quiet, Honolulu, 
"round whose green shores the long Pacific rolls," 
by trade-winds borne across the world-wide waste, 
surges unceasingly, and where art has combined 
with nature, too riotous here, to modify it to ex- 
quisite proportions, of harmonious loveliness! I 
owe a grudge to the Hawaiian mosquito, but I 
haven't the heart to recall one flaw in this peer- 
less "gem of the ocean." 

Six miles from Honolulu are the historic Palis. 
From this sheer precipice, Kamehameha, first, the 
Napoleon of the Pacific, drove the King of Mani 
and his followers. The bleaching bones of these 
Islanders have lain for centuries at its base, in 
the valley below, and the beautiful and valuable 
pulu fern, with its great, soft, feathery fronds and 
the Brobdingnagian ever-living creepers with mass 
of leaf and flower hide this Golgotha of Oahu, 
and it is now, but a memory from out a dim past. 

In the palmy days of the Sandwich Islands, the 

31 



Prose and Verse 

inhabitants numbered one hundred thousand. To- 
day, I think there remain hardly forty thousand. 
The fostering care of civilization does not seem to 
have agreed with their constitution; but this is only 
another instance in history which confirms the 
theory of the sure decadence of the colored races 
of the earth, when the irresistible Caucasian ad- 
vances upon them. 

Waikiki is a small sea-side resort, three miles 
from Honolulu. I signal it out from the many 
other lovely towns, because it was here I first saw 
the natives climb the cocoanut trees, walking up 
them like monkeys; and ate the young nut, full of 
a soft, sweet, pulpy mass, with a spoon, and it is 
here that distinctive feature of all Hawaiian sea- 
side houses, the Lanai, is found in perfection. It 
is impossible to give an adequate description of this 
delightful place, but imagine a huge tree-trunk 
growing about ten feet high, and throwing out 
innumerable lateral branches, interlacing in regular 
order, until an impervious bower is formed, with 
a roof which neither rain nor sun penetrates. The 
floor is covered with cocoa-mats and furnished with 
chairs, lounges, stands of books, the machine, and 
work-table and the dining-table ; for this is the uni- 
versal living-room of the family. I sat, one evening 
just outside one of these beautiful places, upon a 
platform extending out to the water's edge, a de- 

22 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

lightful adjunct to the Lanai. The setting sun 
shut in a day of peculiar beauty. The closing scene 
was one of unparalleled grandeur. Along the 
western horizon a lake of fire burned fiercely while 
black masses of cloud reared their dark folds 
against the sky, like sombre mountains wrapped 
in shadow, whose curved outlines glowed in living 
flame. The sun's flashing rays lit up the rugged 
pile. 'Twixt two gloomy peaks of cloud, a fissure 
opened its cavernous jaws of darkness, and down it 
poured a glowing sea of fire and irradiated its 
sides with glory; even as I looked, the rosy smile 
of daylight faded ; but, the sun from below the hori- 
zon lit up the heavens and flushed the sky with rose, 
with violet, with yellow, and with all the opaline 
tints, which lay like great fields of mother-of-pearl 
over all the western sky. 

"For all the vision dies, as t'were away, 
And still the sense of rest that sprang from it, 
Dwells in my heart." 

Then arose the moon, and while we sat silent 
watching the scene, or talking in low tones of many 
things, hour by hour, She ascended, higher and 
higher, until in the glorious bending arch of the 
night She hung like a silver shield, and sent a wide- 
spread, gleaming track far across the broad ex- 

33 



Prose and Verse 

panse of the quiet ocean. The waves seemed to 
creep upon the shelly beach as if the power of ener- 
getic motion were withheld by some magic enchant- 
ment and in dreamy effort slipped up the sand in 
obedience only to habit. 

To Mrs. Dominis (Liliokalani) I was indebted 
for a sight of the hula-hula, a fantastic, silly and 
lascivious dance, and to the King for a native feast, 
where we sat on our feet, or half reclined on cocoa- 
mat pillows. The same day I went out to see the 
surf-swimmers; the surf which broke on this part 
of the coast extended about one hundred and fifty 
yards from shore, within which space, surged the 
sea, and dashed against the coral reefs with great 
violence. In stormy weather these swimmers en- 
joy it most, twenty or more natives rush into the 
water, carrying narrow boards rounded at the ends. 
They plunge under the first wave, suffer it to roll 
over them, rise beyond it and swim out to sea; 
this is repeated under the second wave, but it must 
be done with great dexterity or they will be thrown 
upon the coral reef and killed. They then swim 
out to smoother water, and mounting their planks 
just at the right moment, return on the largest 
wave, coming in with marvellous speed, standing 
almost naked like statues of bronze, on their nar- 
row boards with folded arms, rushing on to what 
looks like certain death upon the rocks, but just 

34 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

before the wave breaks on the reef, they slip back 
into the water, and repeat the same manoeuvres. 

History is not worth much that does not prove 
some scientific fact. It is useless as mere fact. It 
is the only basis upon which we may preconceive 
the future. It has served to be a law of nature that 
the inferior dark races of the earth must pass before 
the Caucasian, as I have said before, although they 
linger awhile, if fostered by the whites, as these 
Islanders have been through the missionaries, and a 
humane King and Queen. The disappearance of 
the vast tribes of the North American Indians, the 
fate of the countless races once found upon the 
plateaux of Central America, and the wasting na- 
tions of the South Pacific are all proofs of that 
law. 

The Anglo-Saxon has passed over America, oc- 
cupied the islands of the sea, and their inhabitants, 
thus far, have succumbed or perished. He has car- 
ried the Cross in one hand, and scattered the seeds 
of new vices, disease and death with the other. Oh ! 
his methods are cruel indeed! and sooner or later 
he extinguishes or ruins every inferior race that 
he overwhelms. 

I must confess, I feel an especial tenderness for 
these smaller races, the Island particularly, which 
are slowly but surely being merged into the vast 
white agglomeration, whose old poetic, individual 

35 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

life is doomed to pass away, and whose languages 
will soon be only embalmed treasures in the scholar's 
library. Like lonely weary voyagers on some great 
unknown ocean, we find these wanderers from other 
days singing the songs which their fathers sang, 
but in broken cadence. Clinging in secret perhaps, 
to ancient superstitions, which have grown wan and 
ghostly in the light of the better day which has 
dawned, repeating as if possessed of some talismanic 
power the words of their ancient tongue. The Ha- 
waiian race is slowly fading away. Australia, New 
Zealand, the races of this whole Archipelago, will 
scarcely see the flood-tide of American perfection. 

It was with regret I bade adieu to this lovely 
land, and with a sad heart I waved "farewell" and 
"aloha" to the kind friends and all the beauty I 
beheld for the last time. 

"Aloha," the sweetest word in the Hawaiian 
tongue, "love to thee." It should be engraved on 
their coat-of-arms, as a symbol of that generous 
welcome and unbounded kindness every stranger 
receives upon her shores. 

Hawaii, beautiful queen of the Southern sea, may 
the bloom of thy perpetual Summer rest in peace on 
thy beauteous islands uninterrupted through the 
ages, and native Hawaiians look up to thy soft 
skies, always the patriotic brave and generous de- 
fenders of their native land! 

36 



The Study of the Ancient 
Languages 

THE study of language, and the ancient 
classics in particular, should hold a prom- 
inent place in any liberal course of educa- 
tion. "Words are things;" not merely the sym- 
bols, but also the instruments, and almost the neces- 
sary conditions of thought. If "the highest study 
of mankind, is man" — then the study of language, 
which reveals the inmost workings of the mind, and 
in which are reflected the character and the past his- 
tory of the races that speak it, must be ranked among 
the highest of intellectual pursuits. The strong 
tendency of the age to decry such studies as un- 
practical, and the prejudices against them which 
prevail, especially in a new country, when the minds 
of men are necessarily absorbed in material pur- 
suits, needs no apology for a lengthy discussion. In 
this country the study of the English language in 
the scientific spirit of modern philology, is becom- 
ing appreciated more and more as an element of 
liberal scholarship. By this I mean not only the 
thorough grammatical analysis of the English lan- 

37 



Prose and Verse 

guage as it now is, but also the systematic analysis 
of our ancient Mother-tongue, the Anglo-Saxon, 
and of the old English authors, from Chaucer's 
"Well of English Undefiled," down to the great 
authors of the 17th century, together with a critical 
examination of some of the masterpieces of English 
literature, that the pupil may understand wherein 
their power and beauty consist. Now, it was a 
saying of Goethe's that, "he who is acquainted with 
no foreign tongue knows nothing of his own." Al- 
though this is certainly too sweeping a statement, 
yet it contains a good deal of truth. 

Prof. G. P. Marsh says "while the study of the 
Anglo-Saxon and old English promises the most 
abundant harvest of information with respect to 
the etymology of modern English, yet we must turn 
to the languages of the literature of Greece and 
Rome as the great source of all scientific and gram- 
matical construction." 

The first reason, then, for the study of the so- 
called dead languages is, that thereby, we may be 
enabled, as Goethe says, to know our own. About 
one-third of the vocabulary of the English language 
is derived from Latin, besides almost all technical 
nomenclature of the modern sciences, and every 
scholar knows how much more life and meaning 
these words will contain if one understands the lan- 
guage from which they are derived. He loses so 

38 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

much of the subtle strength which evaporates in the 
translation into our language. Latin is the root 
from which have sprung all the languages of the 
south of Europe, so that nine-tenths of the Italian 
vocabulary and a somewhat smaller proportion of 
the Spanish and French, is borrowed directly from 
it. It is the master key which unlocks all the diffi- 
culties of those languages and opens their literary 
treasures to the scholar. But the insight which it 
gives into the meaning and history of words is but 
a small part of the aid which it affords us in know- 
ing our own language in the proper sense of 
that term. For we cannot gain a complete 
idea of grammar as a science, or of the general 
structure of language, without studying some 
tongue, which, like the Latin, exhibits these princi- 
ples in a tangible shape, by means of its inflections. 
There has never been any method invented for 
teaching the principles of general grammar equal to 
the Latin language. No modern language can for a 
moment be compared with it in this respect; hence, 
it has become the "genuine standard with which to 
compare the grammar of other languages, and the 
medium through which all the nations of Christen- 
dom have become acquainted with the structure and 
philosophy of their own/' Furthermore, when the 
student has mastered the grammatical machinery of 
these languages he enters upon the higher depart- 

39 



Prose and Verse 

ment of criticism and rhetoric; he learns to weigh 
probabilities, to draw nice distinctions, and is thus 
trained to accuracy of thought and expression. As 
some Greek grammarian has remarked, "the connec- 
tion between thought and speech is, from the very 
nature of and relation of each, so intimate that it 
is impossible but that as a person makes himself 
better acquainted with the proportions of language, 
he makes himself more the master of the mysteries 
of human thought in general, and of the tone and 
feelings of the nation, or man, whose inmost mind 
he thus reads, in the forms and idioms of their 
speech." The processes of thought necessary in the 
translation of any other language into English and 
vice versa are peculiar. It is an exercise of the 
mind which brings into use certain faculties re- 
quired to properly construe the phraseology, the 
subtle, idiomatic meaning, which cannot be obtained 
through dictionary phrases, and these faculties thus 
called into action, require a mental effort entirely 
unlike any other. This is worthy of consideration 
as well as the fact that it is impossible to get the 
author's precise meaning in any liberalized transla- 
tion of the works of ancient and modern languages. 
For instance: the Iliad and the Odyssey translated 
by Pope, are jestingly called "Pope's Iliad and 
Odyssey," so fully are they saturated with his own 
peculiar mental qualities. The mind thus receives 

40 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

a discipline quite different from that which is im- 
parted by the study of the exact sciences, and 
equally if not more valuable. It does not need that 
I should argue to an intelligent reader that the 
development and exercise of the mind are more 
important than the mere acquisition of facts. Sir 
William Hamilton declares that "the comparative 
utility of a study is not to be principally estimated 
by the complement of truths which it may com- 
municate, but by the degree in which it determines 
our higher capacities to action." It is, then, as the 
most complete course of mental gymnastics that I 
would indicate the pre-eminent utility of these 
studies. Hence, the very difficulty of the ancient 
languages is an advantage ; as is also their compara- 
tive strangeness and remoteness from ours in habits 
of thought. For, while the student gradually works 
himself into the sentiment and mode of expression 
of the ancient world, by this very act he receives a 
mental expansion and breadth of view which he 
could not have gained from the study of any modern 
language. In studying a modern English author, 
or even any language foreign to ours, the very 
rapidity with which we pass from point to point 
prevents us from thoroughly seizing and retaining 
the scenes and events as they pass before us — when 
we have gone through them there remains too 
often but a faint and shadowy outline, and even 

41 



Prose and Verse 

this outline is imperfectly retained. So, in regard 
to style. We may linger a moment over a pas- 
sage peculiarly pointed and impressive, but we are 
too much in a hurry to thoroughly understand in 
what its excellence consists. But while the student 
is laboriously employed in taking to pieces and 
reconstructing some masterpiece from Sophocles 
or Demosthenes, he is sometimes obliged to spend 
as much time over a single page as over a whole 
oration or drama in his mother-tongue; and thus, 
as Beneke says, in writing on education, "the whole 
matter and manner of the author are thoroughly 
assimilated in a way most conducive to a healthy 
reproduction on the part of the receiver, and to a 
free development of the higher powers of reflection 
on the phenomena of the ancient intellectual world." 

More mental fatigue will accrue from the effort 
to sound the abysses of the Greek mind than 
the study of the most abstruse intellectual problems 
of any modern writer. These are the advantages, 
then, which belong to the study of the ancient 
classics, simply as products of mind and not as 
models of art. 

But, upon further examination, we find that 
these works are absolutely unrivalled as models of 
beauty and correctness in art, and that nothing 
exists equal to them as a means of forming the 
literary taste of the student and of teaching him 

42 



By Claudia Boddie Money- 
how to distinguish genuine gold from tinsel. I 
am against the idea of giving our youth at first 
any lower order of books than the classic poets. 
Purity and force of language are imbibed, not 
learned at once. These authors may not be under- 
stood readily, but as the mind develops, their mints 
strike the young mind with their wonderful beauty. 
It begins to appreciate their charm, and the absence 
of all that is false in logic and corrupt in taste, and 
this very simplicity and absence of parade is a vast 
advantage in forming habits of thought. The un- 
adorned simplicity and exquisite clearness of Hero- 
dotus gives to history its most elegant form — and 
he was the model of Thucydides, who did not, how- 
ever, equal him. 

This same genius of the Greek nation which 
turned every piece of marble that has been so much 
as touched by a Greek chisel into a precious stone, 
created also that splendid literature from which, as 
Macaulay says, "have sprung all the wisdom, the 
freedom and the glory of the Western world;" for 
the whole intellectual cultivation of modern Europe 
is essentially Grecian. Roman literature, with a 
few exceptions, was but an echo of the Grecian, 
and the same is true, but in a less degree, of many 
of our modern authors. In fact, a great part of the 
masterpieces of English literature is lost to one unac- 
quainted with the ancient classics. The poetry of 

43 



Prose and Verse 

Dante and Milton is saturated with ancient learn- 
ing, and as we approach nearer to our own times 
we owe to the same influence the most exquisite 
touches of a Gray, a Shelley or a Tennyson. 

Although in the inductive sciences we have ad- 
vanced much further than the great thinkers of 
antiquity, it ill becomes the pigmy to despise the 
giant on whose shoulders he is standing. 

Says Sir William Hamilton, "Every learner in 
science is now familiar with more truths than Aris- 
totle or Plato ever dreamed of, yet compared with 
the Stagyrite or Athenian how few among our mas- 
ters of modern science rank higher than intellectual 
barbarians ?" 

There is another benefit derived from these 
studies which it is not so easy to describe. In 
studying ancient literature, not only do we ascend 
to the fountain-head from which Poetry and Elo- 
quence and Philosophy have flowed down to our 
own age and on to ages to come, but we become 
acquainted with another world than the present, 
with another and a different civilization, and we are 
enabled to measure all that the human mind could 
achieve without the aid of Divine Revelation. 

For anyone, then, who wishes to plant himself 
upon the summit of intellectual cultivation an ini- 
tiation into ancient literature is absolutely indis- 
pensable. Only when so initiated, to borrow a 

44 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

thought from Beneke, is he in a condition to survey 
comprehensively and to see profoundly into what 
human nature could achieve by the aid of ancient 
learning alone; only then is the scholar enabled to 
extend his view beyond the narrow horizon of the 
present which encompasses him, and to distinguish 
that which is merely local and temporary from that 
which is of universal significance. And it is this 
extent of vision, alone, which entitles him to say 
that he is educated, in the highest and completest 
sense of that word. 

Again, these studies form a bond of union be- 
tween the educated men of the world, uniting them 
as by the tie of a social free-masonry in the great 
"republic of letters." Over this intellectual realm 
the imperial sway of Athens has lasted two thou- 
sand years and yet shows no sign of decay. A 
hundred years hence what book of science however 
eminent now will be read except as a relic of the 
past! But, transitory as the books of physical 
science will surely be, how will it be with the great 
classic authors? Will Homer's mighty epic cease 
to be read or admired? Will not Virgil still be 
listened to, as he sings the story of the sack of Troy, 
or paints the tragic fate of Dido, or relates the birth 
of Rome ? Truly has Macaulay asserted of Athens, 
"her influence and her glory will still survive fresh 
in eternal youth," exempt from mutability and de- 

45 



Prose and Verse 

cay, immortal as the intellectual principle from 
which they derive their origin, and over which they 
exercise their control. 

The experience of the most eminent educators in 
Europe has fully justified these views in regard to 
the value of classical studies. There the experi- 
ment has been tried and the result has been against 
the "Realists." Instead of declining these studies 
are now pursued with new vigor, and the science of 
language is shedding an unexpected light upon the 
primeval unity of man. So far from discarding the 
classics from the universities of England another 
department has been added — the "School of Lan- 
guages" — where the ancient Hindoo is taught, 
and remarkable facts have been brought to 
light from their investigations, bearing upon the 
origin of the great East Indian religions, their an- 
tiquity, and their retrogression at the present day 
from their simplicity and purity of their original 
form. 

There is a period in life when the study of lan- 
guage is peculiarly adapted to the mind, when it 
has advanced beyond the elementary branches, but 
is not mature enough to do justice to scientific 
studies. In fact, it is often the case that those who 
pursue classical studies acquire a mental power and 
accuracy which enables them to outstrip their rivals 
on their own chosen ground. 

46 



By Claudia Boddie Money- 
Let not those decry the classics who owe to these 
very studies their ability to grasp more readily the 
highest intellectual thought. Call the roll of British 
statesmen from Pitt and Canning to Derby and 
Gladstone, and you will find that their university 
career generally pre-shadowed their future great- 
ness, and that some of them were "first-honor men 
at Oxford or Cambridge." Or take great leaders 
of modern thought — the foremost men in all the 
highest departments of knowledge — and see if most 
of them are not men of classical culture. The 
anthropologists, ethnologists and the philologists of 
our time would not exist otherwise. 

The influence this culture has upon the propriety 
and chasteness of language which a scholar finds 
without difficulty, is always evident, and even to 
inferior intellects gives a subtle charm which the 
common-place can never effect. 

Far be it from me, however, to prescribe one 
unvarying course for all capacities and tempera- 
ments, nor let me be understood as under-valuing 
the very great importance of mathematics, or other 
intellectual studies. On the contrary, let it be our 
aim to present the different sciences as a connected 
system, so as to produce a symmetrical and well- 
balanced development of the mind. It should be 
our aim to make independent thinkers, and not mere 
puppets — scholars, and not pedants — and to accus- 

47 



Prose and Verse 

torn our young men and women, in the words of 
Horace, "Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri" 
that is, "to swear a blind allegiance to no master." 

I doubt very much the wisdom of the sentiment 
of the present age which favors practical education 
altogether. The idea involved in a practical educa- 
tion is money-getting, and already we are experi- 
encing the results of the system. It is a passion 
which takes possession of men to the exclusion of 
pursuits which ennoble and elevate the race, and the 
master-mind which succeeds in arresting this idea 
will do the world a benefit which we cannot now 
properly appreciate. 

But even in this respect, the man who has on 
the full armor of a well-disciplined mind with every 
power properly developed, will be able to contend 
with the difficulties of life more bravely than he 
who knows only the tricks of his own trade. 

As his mind develops and genius begins to work, 
there is no question in my mind which will succeed 
the better — the man fully equipped with knowledge 
and the results to the mind of the effort to acquire 
it, or he who at the common schools has left a good 
part of his most powerful faculties dormant. 



48 



To the Women of the United 
States this Appeal is Addressed 

THE grave of Mary, the Mother of Wash- 
ington, lies neglected and desolate; a 
monument begun there, but never com- 
pleted, stands blackened and dilapidated. We would 
rescue from total oblivion the name of a woman 
whose memory should be hallowed in every Amer- 
ican home, and pay a national tribute to her noble 
motherhood by erecting a monument in her honor. 

This is a "woman's movement," says the first cir- 
cular issued, "national in its character, for raising 
the needed sum by such small contributions that 
no woman in the land need be deprived of the 
privilege of aiding a cause that must appeal to the 
heart of every mother and daughter in America." 

This will be the first monument ever erected by 
women to a woman. Mary Washington was of a 
heroic nature, patriotic soul, tender spirit, and un- 
common mental gifts. She was the finest type of the 
brave and devoted women who ruled the households 
of the Colonies in those days when our freedom 
trembled in the balance. Do we not stand re- 

49 



Prose and Verse 

proached before the world? Should we not make 
ample atonement for the neglect under which has 
lain for long years the memory of the mother of the 
greatest hero and patriot "that adorns the annals of 
American history ?" It is a sad spot, that desolated 
grave where has rested for a hundred years, amid 
tangled masses of humble weeds and grass, the noble 
woman so beloved and revered by her noble son, who 
proudly declared, "I attribute all my success in life 
to the moral, intellectual, and physical education 
which I received from my mother." Should not 
this touch the hearts of our women and make them 
cling tenderly to her memory as a proud heritage? 
A precious memorial will be the monument they 
shall place above her sacred dust, and consecrated 
the ground where she resposes. 

The women of America should be "heart-moved 
as by the voice of a trumpet" when this appeal comes 
to them. To her we are indebted that George Wash- 
ington became a patriotic American citizen. To 
her is due that grand character, cast in such heroic 
moulds, that union of gigantic energy, indomitable 
resolution, and dauntless courage which marked 
him the first of all his countrymen. It was she who 
kindled noble principles and purposes in his soul. 
At her side his genius budded and expanded. But 
for her wisdom and spirit he would have passed his 
youth upon the deck of a British man-of-war, 

50 



By Claudia Boddie Money- 
trained for England's service, and the sword which 
cleft the way to our victory would have been drawn 
for our oppressor.* 

Women are giving their time and energies to 
building monuments to men. Their success is 
phenomenal. But the time has come when there 
must be commemorated in enduring marble the vir- 
tues of a woman who shall be always to them the 
paragon of womanly excellence. Nothing is left un- 
done to raise to a higher plane in this and foreign 
countries the memory of George Washington ; but for 
years this beloved and faithful-hearted mother, 
whose protest against the plans of others to give 
him to England made him ours forever, has but a 
dilapidated ruin to mark her grave.f 

Behind the gleaming marble the artist stands pro- 
claiming his immortal workmanship. What sculptor 
can point to a work like that of Mary Washington ? 

*"Colonel Lawrence Washington, of Mount Vernon, with 
whom his little half-brother, George, was a petted favorite, 
procured for him in 1746, when he was not quite fourteen 
years of age, a midshipman's warrant in the British Navy, and 
the ensuing winter was passed in joyous preparation by young 
Washington for entering upon his new sphere in life. The 
following summer he was on the point of departure in a 
British ship-of-war lying in the Potomac. His luggage was 
on board, when his mother's carefully considered final decision, 
kindly but firmly communicated, forbade his going — which 
greatly disappointed her son; but with filial love and ready 
obedience he acquiesced and returned to his studies." — 
Lossing's "Life of Mary Washington." 

fMary Ball Washington, the daughter of Col. Joseph Ball, 
of Lancaster, Va., was born 1706; married A gustine Wash- 

5i 



Prose and Verse 

It was she who moulded into grand symmetrical 
proportions this character so nearly perfect — it was 
she who gave him to his country. 

Women of America, marshal your forces ! Begin 
the work with energies quickened by the thought 
that she is yours! 

Let every one of her sex, whatever her condition, 
come with her contribution. She who commands 
millions, will she not give thousands? She who by 
arduous daily toil earns a pittance, may she not 
cheerfully add her mite? 

We would not that this monument be built by a 
few generous men and women alone; we want the 
pennies of the poor as well as the dollars of the 
rich. We would have every woman to share in the 
proud privilege of associating herself by her con- 
tribution in the work of erecting an imperishable 
memorial to that epitome of womanly virtues and 
graces — Mary, the Mother of our beloved 
Washington. 

ington, March 6, 1730, and died August 25, 1789, aged 83 years, 
and was buried on the spot chosen by herself on her own 
home plantation, "Kenmore," on the Rappahannock, near 
Fredericksburg. 

Forty years after, a patriotic citizen of New York, Mr. 
Silas E. Burrows, presented a handsome marble monument 
for the spot, the corner-stone of which was laid by President 
Andrew Jackson in 1833 ; that was nearly but not entirely 
completed, and is now in such a state of dilapidation and ruin 
as to be irrecoverable. 

Augustine Washington [father of George] died 1743, and 
his body was laid in the family vault in Westmoreland county, 
Virginia. — Lossing's ''Life of Mary Washington." 

52 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

This Appeal comes to you from The National 
Mary Washington Memorial Association, 
chartered February 22, 1890, in the District of 

Columbia. 

TRUSTEES. 
Hon. Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States 

{ex-fiicio). 
Hon. Melville W. Fuller, Chief-Justice of the United States 

(ex-Mcio). 
Hon. Philip W. McKinney, Governor of Virginia (ex-ofiicio). 

LADY MANAGERS (and incorporators). 

PRESIDENT. 

Mrs. Amelia C. Waite. 

FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT. 

Mrs. Matilda W. Emory. 

SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Blair Lee. 

SECRETARY. 

Mrs. Margaret Hetzel. 
Miss Maud Lee Davidge. 

DIRECTORS. 

PRESIDENT. 

The President of the United States (ex -officio'). 
The Chief-Justice of the United States (ex-oMcio). 
The Governor of the State of Virginia (ex-oMcio). 

VICE-PRESIDENT. 

Mrs. Amelia C. Waite, 1616 Rhode Island Avenue, Wash- 
ington. 

SECRETARY. 

Mrs. Margaret Hetzel, Clifton Station, Va. 

TREASURER. 

E. Francis Riggs, Riggs' Bank, Washington, D. C. 
Mrs. Matilda W. Emory, 1718 H Street, Washington, D. C. 
Mrs. Elizabeth Blair Lee, 1653 Pennsylvania Avenue, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 
Miss Maud Lee Davidge, 1624 H Street, Washington, D. C. 
Mr. Reginald Fendall, 344 D Street, Washington, D. C. 
Mr. Blair Lee, 344 D Street, Washington, D. C. 

53 



Prose and Verse 

A Vice-President to be appointed in each State, 
whose duty it shall be to organize branch associa- 
tions in her State, and adopt such measures as she 
may deem expedient to procure funds for the erec- 
tion of this monument, and for its future care and 
preservation; also to secure the largest enrollment 
of members possible and forward the rolls of names 
with the sums contributed to the Secretary of the 
National Association for permanent record. 

VICE-PRESIDENTS OF STATES. 
Mrs. Senator Blair, New Hampshire. 
Mrs. Governor Dillingham, Vermont. 
Mrs. Roger Wolcott, Massachusetts. 
Mrs. Burrows, Rhode Island. 
Mrs. Nicholas Beach, Connecticut. 
Mrs. Senator McPherson, New Jersey. 
Miss Charlotte Pendleton, Philadelphia. 
Mrs. Senator Gray, Delaware. 
Mrs. Mary Washington Keyser, Maryland. 
Mrs. Senator Faulkner, West Virginia. 
Mrs. Judge Goolrick, Virginia. 
Mrs. Senator Vance, North Carolina. 
Mrs. John W. Lewis, South Carolina. 
Miss Wheeler, Alabama. 
Mrs. Claudia B. Money, Mississippi. 
Mrs. J. Washington Story, Louisiana. 
Mrs. Senator Reagan, Texas. 
Mrs. Clifton R. Breckenridge, Arkansas. 
Mrs. Mary B. Washington, Tenessee. 
Mrs. D. Meade Massie, Ohio. 
Mrs. Senator Cockrell, Missouri. 
Mrs. James S. Clarkson, Iowa. 
Mrs. Lyman Trumbull, Illinois. 
Mrs. Senator Stewart, Nevada. 
Mrs. Senator Hearst, California. 
Mrs. Senator Dolph, Oregon. 
Mrs. Senator Squire, Washington. 

MARGARET HETZEL, Secretary. 

Clifton Station, Va., 

Sept. is, 1890. 

54 



Immortal or Ephemeral? 

"We do not take possession of our ideas, but are 
possessed by them. They master us, and force us into 
the Arena, where like gladiators, we must fight them." 
— Heine, 

THERE are many printed pages pregnant 
with glorious thoughts and yet we cannot 
produce one, which has not at some time, 
been expressed, before our own has sprung to life. 
A solid phalanx of thoughts belongs to the subject 
which concerns us at present, and it is through the 
co-operative power of many minds that I have at- 
tained to any knowledge worthy of consideration. 

I shall speak first of mind and matter in com- 
bination. I refer to the mental activities of the one 
charged with an inferior power to regulate, and to 
mediate between the different parts of the human 
being. Comprehensive Truth is nowhere more 
potent than in the conscious, or reasoning mind; 
but man requires it for nothing more than an animal 
existence. With man as a primitive being, before us 
for dissection, we need now no scalpel to display his 
structural formation, nor his component parts. 

55 



Prose and Verse 

Scientists have assumed that man sprang from a 
primordial germ and evolved brain tissue, and as 
he was constrained by the necessities of his con- 
scious being, developed more and more cells as he 
required them, they being the result of experience. 
The radical germ holding the Eternal Thought 
Force, revealed itself in slow evolution. This sympa- 
thetic germ presiding in the first atom contained 
every quality required for perfect development, able 
like the plant to draw to it through inherent intelli- 
gence, all extraneous assistance, when the process 
became retarded by unhappy environment. 

Man, in his dim, far away beginning, most prob- 
ably had a conspicuous lack of the conscious mental- 
ity, which readily assumed control, when through- 
out the multiplied ages of his existence, the desires 
of his material form, wrought by thought force, 
became pre-eminent, until he is at present the full 
grown genus, — Man. He is not classified by all 
minds now, as more than that. "One mind" is the 
dictum of those who lack the Supreme Knowledge, 
latent in his creation, of the Great Original Power. 
Their learning comprehends nothing more than their 
conscious minds dictate, corresponding through the 
brain, with the sympathetic nerve-system, corrobo- 
rating the final conception, that these senses which 
have no slender hold upon him, strongly sustain the 
idea, that beyond these concepts there is no other 

56 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

compelling force that controls thought. Innumer- 
able experiences enter into the brain through the 
sensory ganglia, acting and re-acting upon each 
other. The anatomist understands why certain 
nerves do not apprehend the intentions of the brain 
— there may be a need of stimulus — or there may 
be atrophy, and finally, death. There may be a 
complete paralysis of the great part of the nervous 
system, and still there would remain a regnant force 
within; and until the brain upheaval, which may 
have occurred through insufficient nutrition, is en- 
tirely destructive, it can be re-enlivened, and as long 
as the Thought Force can hold together this com- 
plex machinery of the corporal body, and life sus- 
tained, perfect health conditions can be established. 

When one assumes that the mortal mind is not 
the only refuge in this life, when the whole physical 
organism dies, man relapses into his original ele- 
ments. There is nothing sentient left in these 
atoms. They establish the fact only of the changes 
which matter assumes in its various forms of dis- 
integration. Comporting himself as an incompre- 
hensible being, begotten by a mysterious power, he 
acknowledges nothing and remains in the darkness 
of an obscure, conjectural idea. 

Yet, it stares him in the face as a phenomenon 
which he ever strains his conscious mind to under- 
stand. It is the great question which has confronted 

57 



Prose and Verse 

him throughout the ages. It has touched and 
aroused his intellect. His mind has been too restless 
to stop its investigations of what it cannot under- 
stand on the surface, and although it never entirely 
gives up, it pursues in vain, because the secrets of 
Nature are covered, and he feels that in an attempt 
to unveil them, he treads on consecrated ground. 
It closes in his case, in an endless entanglement of 
confused ideas, because nothing has been properly- 
investigated, nothing counted, weighed, measured 
or verified. 

It has been a vague and loose theoretical conclu- 
sion which each man has evolved from his own 
mind, or conjured out of his own fancy; for when 
sought, through the reasoning faculties, he ar- 
rives at nothing satisfactory through the ordered 
methods of reason, through the conscious mind. 

It is the "carnal mind," and cannot learn of spirit- 
ual things. There are, however, whole fields of 
thought and experience where the seeds of truth 
have been sown. But the common apprehension (al- 
though the desire to unfold the "magic of mysteries" 
extends to the measure of the universe) has the habit 
of taking only a few things into account, making 
them a test of the value of what cannot be ex- 
plained perspicuously, nor plainly set down by the 
powers of the conscious mind, and has considered 
the question afar off. 

58 



By Claudia Boddie Money- 
It is true the investigation has been commensurate 
with the compass of human thought and has been 
carried so far as it is possible for comprehension. 
In that mind, however, man finds himself in "Er- 
ror's Labyrinthine Way/' The imperfect system 
of metaphysics takes him into the shadowy spaces of 
the uncertain, and leaves him in darkness. It is 
materializing, and draws a line of demarcation, and 
says, "Thus far only, canst thou come." 

He beholds the Infinite One afar off, and his 
intelligence wanders in space, inquiring, appealing; 
but the finite mind cannot find Him. When he 
says, "Credo Deum," does he obtain a full confirma- 
tion of the thought, or only a phrase beginning 
with the first conception of God? The most solid 
treasures of human wisdom have been attacked by 
the narrowness of contemporary prejudice, and "it 
seems as useless to fight against the interpretations 
of ignorance, as to whip the fog." 

There are doubts arising in the incisive, logical 
mind, when we make the statement that there are 
two (or, as I believe), more than two minds con- 
tained in what is known as the human being. Now, 
to define mind requires some very fine mental pro- 
cesses, and the idea difficult to grasp, until a flash 
light radiates from the subjective or unconscious 
mind and brings us, at once face to face with that 
inscrutable yet unassailable thought-force, which is 

59 



Prose and Verse 

co-existent with God Himself. There can be no 
confirmation of the propositions contained in this 
statement, and the uninitiated regard them as non- 
sensical hypotheses, as disputable assumptions, de- 
claring there is nothing substantial upon which to 
base these theories, arguing there must be a known 
premise in every proposition from which a perfect 
conclusion can be drawn, subjected to the most 
severe reasoning. 

There are minds, however, replete with human 
reason and which consistently plead for a reversal 
of these ideas — ideas which are not true, but are 
current in the minds and upon the tongues of men. 

They are most anxious for the best and most 
satisfactory solution of the question, for the grand- 
est results, and they do not trifle with what is so 
important to man, nor do they believe him en- 
dangered by his philosophy, for he has found a 
thousand-fold repetition of the existence of such 
truth, founded upon experience, that like certain 
circumstantial evidence carries conviction beyond 
dispute. 

Minds of this nature, have seized with passionate 
eagerness upon the idea of the Divinity within 
them; and had wonderful visions of that immortal 
tenant of the body — the spiritual mind. If we 
consider man from the standpoint of the "New 
Thought," we cannot resist the evidence of man's 

60 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

immortal origin, and skepticism must vanish into 
nothingness. Bacon says, "There is nothing in the 
order of nature so small as to be without a Cause; 
nor again, anything so great but it depends on some- 
thing else, so that the fabric of nature contains in 
her own lap and bosom, every event whatever, both 
great and small, and develops them in season by a 
fixed law." If we conceive of man, the highest crea- 
tion, as far above the fetid atmosphere of material 
conditions, as he really is in his spiritual manifesta- 
tion, which promotes him above the sterile boundary 
of a flesh and perishable form, we know that he 
reveals himself through spirit impulse and then the 
problem goes no longer unsolved. The unspeakable 
glory of the Immortal Spark shines in splendor upon 
the struggling spirit of man and woos it to the light, 
and draws from the gloom of the speculative intelli- 
gence the radiant Truth, which "Springs eternal 
in the human breast," "In thee am I — Who art in 
me also." 

The mastery of himself is the one essential for the 
permanent use of the power existent in the imper- 
sonal mind. I say, impersonal, in the sense of its 
belonging in nothing especial to any one human 
being. It is an emanation from the Eternal, Uni- 
versal Mind — the Invisible Source whence we draw 
that inspiration which leads us into the higher and 
finer regions of existence. It comprehends every- 

61 



Prose and Verse 

thing beyond the harrying fretting, perpetually-re- 
curring cares and anxieties and sorrows in the life 
of man, when his purposes are thwarted, his efforts 
unrewarded, and his hopes fade away and die, where 
his joys go out one by one, and the arrows of mis- 
fortune pierce his heart. 

It brings us the one life-giving thought which 
reaches into the conscious mind — "I have that with- 
in me which speaks louder than Fate ; which breathes 
of Hope, and Peace, and Trust, and I feel the sweet 
thrill of happiness, which is my birthright." 
Blended with this thought is another of peculiar 
significance. 

Constituted as man is, the perishable and the im- 
perishable, how may the two elements consort, so 
that he may not be wretched, rather than happy? 
Man is, in no wise unable to accomplish this for 
himself. Reaching out, day after day for more of 
those things which his conscious mind maintains 
are the best results of his labor — those multiplied 
desires and fancies bred of a sordid imagination — 
he listens not for the "still, small voice" pleading for 
a part of himself. "Conscience nods at her post" — 
but when disease clasps him to her foul bosom, and 
sorrow envelops him in her maddening clouds of 
darkness, he nears the portal of another conscious- 
ness — and hears the full chord of an awakened 
spirit, musically-sounding, and bringing him back 

62 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

to his forfeited Eden. He has spent but the mini- 
mum quantity of his moral powers in the whole, and 
has concealed in himself that Immortal demonstra- 
tion coming from a mind really unknown to none, 
which has protected him from invasion, by media 
which no one recognizes nor acknowledges more 
manfully than he, when he succeeds in establishing 
in himself the idea of his Divine origin, from that 
mental environment which constructed him, body, 
soul and spirit. The conflicts and doubts which 
assail him as to his spiritual condition, come from a 
want of comprehension of the full revelation of that 
Power in the seat of that mind, which we know 
only as the inborn, primitive, intuitional mind. Here 
the soul gets its instructions for the proper habita- 
tion and functional action of its charge — the body — 
all its emotions, its fears and hopes, its love and 
hate. It is the suggestion — receiver — and is full of 
primeval desires. 

All the qualities which reign in man that are not 
constructions of the intellectual faculties ^volved 
from the reasoning mind, are here. But there comes 
hence, also, the inward suggestion from this un- 
conscious mind whispering its elementary knowledge 
of God in him — spiritual force — eternal truth — 
working in him from the beginning, evolving for 
himself salvation from the poisonous thoughts of 
disease and discontent, and communion with evil 

63 



Prose and Verse 

things — those spirit-indurating passions which cap- 
ture and overwhelm him. It is when the conscious 
mind is rebuked by the Conscience, and that inherent 
spiritual power, pre-eminent in man comes into har- 
mony with the ever-existent, universal Father of all, 
that it asserts itself through its inalienable right to 
chide, to protect, to comfort, to allay pain, to eradi- 
cate disease and open the way to a reconciliation 
with the Light and Life, and Love and Truth, which 
are man's heritage. It redresses the conscious mind 
in garments whiter than snow. It is as strong as the 
unalterable decree of the Absolute Law of our being 
— having its sources in the All-wise, All-powerful, 
All-loving, Infinite Eternal mind of its Creator. 

Within the sanctuary of sanctuaries, the spirit 
sets up its altar, and the angels of Love and Trust 
instinct with reverence, stand at the door and wait. 



64 



Woman's Part in the 
World's Progress 

THE theme upon which I shall talk to you is 
illimitable — It is "Woman! what she has 
been, and may become as a factor in the 
world's progress." 

Whatever subject I undertake to discuss, I feel 
dissatisfied, unless I can pursue it in every direc- 
tion, to the farthest bounds of thought, and yet, 
when I undertake to execute this scheme, my ener- 
gies are almost paralyzed with the very notion of 
the indefinite vastness I long to fill. 

Woman's positon in the world's economy has been 
very spicily described in the following lines, and they 
have given her no obscure place : 

"They talk about a woman's sphere, 
As though it had a limit ! 
There's not a place in earth or heaven, 
There's not a task to mankind given; 
There's not a blessing, or a woe; 
There's not a whisper, 'Yes' or 'No/ 
There's not a life, a death, or birth, 
That has a feather's weight of worth, 
Without a woman in it." 
6s 



Prose and Verse 

I shall endeavor to distinctly trace this influence 
by a hasty glance at the different eras in woman's 
history; and I am sure I shall be able by this testi- 
mony, to substantiate my theory, that to her the 
world is indebted for all that is best in man, and 
worth living for. 

Feminine influence, though hidden, is of vast im- 
portance. The mightiest agents in the material 
world are least known. As an eloquent woman has 
said, "The sun, brilliant and powerful, gives light 
and heat to our planetary system. All may see his 
glory, but the mightier influence of gravitation, 
which controls the universe and reaches, perchance, 
unto the 'heaven of Heavens/ who has seen and 
who can estimate its power ?" 

From Creation to the Messiah's advent includes 
forty centuries; and in this time are comprehended 
all the heroines of Bibical History, too numerous to 
enumerate here. The history of these women illus- 
trates great truths. During this period of four thou- 
sand years, only here and there was a ray of hope 
to be discerned for them. 

Maternal love, faith and energy preserved Moses 
to be the law-giver of Israel, made Samuel the High 
Priest of the Lord, seated Solomon on the throne 
of David, and each of these was an event of mo- 
mentous import to the destiny of the Hebrew 
Nation, and to the progress of mankind. 

66 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

Deborah delivered Israel when not a male Hebrew 
dared to raise his hand until she led the way. Esther 
saved the Jews, when no man could have delayed 
the decree of death. In short, from the time Sarah 
became the Mother of Israel, the Hebrew women 
kept the hope of "Shiloh," or the Redeemer, ever in 
their race. 

This divine faith, like a shining light passing from 
hand to hand, shone out in the characters of the 
Jewish women, from Sarah to Huldah the prophet- 
ess; and while history furnishes no record of an 
apostate Jewess, the men could not be restrained 
from idolatry and apostacy. Among the heathen 
she was worshiped for the highest attribute of human 
nature — Justice, as in Themis, Wisdom in Minerva, 
and Chastity in Diana. 

In Rome, while the ideal of woman was the di- 
vinity which gave the priests oracles, and the people 
laws, domestic purity was preserved ; nor was it until 
the Roman men were absent from their homes, in 
their long wars, lost to the softening, purifying in- 
fluence of their women, that the frightful demorali- 
zation of the Empire was reached. 

"The mother is endowed by God Himself, with 
all the qualities which should render her fit to be- 
comes the principal agent in the moral and intel- 
lectual development of her child/' says Pestalozzi. 

"What the elevation of woman has done for the 

! 67 



Prose and Verse 

reform of social manners, her educated mind is 
doing for our books," says our eloquent Bethune. 

"On the cultivation of the minds of women, de- 
pends the wisdom of men," says the penetrating 
Sheridan. 

' 'The future destiny of the child is always the 
work of the mother," declared the sagacious Na- 
poleon; but the highest testimony comes from the 
word of God : "Strength and honor are her clothing, 
and she shall rejoice in time to come." 

This is a woman's status now, up to which she 
has worked herself from a state of slavery, by her 
moral character alone, through love and patience, 
and that God-given power which has enabled her 
to overcome sin, and elevate man. 

Have you ever thought of the profound truth 
there is in those words of John Ruskin, that for all 
wars that have been fought, all the cruelty and in- 
justice of which man has been guilty, all the vices 
that he has practiced, women are responsible, in 
that they have not tried to hinder him ? 

One has only to think for a moment to know 
this is incontrovertibly true. 

Every faithful performance of private duty adds 
to the stock of public virtues; and as the woman's 
mind stamps the first and most indelible impressions 
on the child, who is in a state of darkness, to her 
should be given the highest opportunities to pre- 

68 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

pare herself for the task of moulding the characters 
of embryo men and women. 

This is a subject upon which "thoughts create 
thoughts" — a subject upon which all the earnest- 
ness and enthusiasm of my heart and mind have 
been engaged for years; and which would require 
volumes of space to exhaust, so prolific is it in argu- 
ment and evidence in the annals of history and 
experience. 

To assist the physical man is to assist all his 
powers. The body that suffers must feel the enerva- 
tion of the mind also ; then, that which promotes the 
welfare of the whole race is mental and physical 
education. 

Woman starts out with nearly all the moral 
power. Give her the intellectual and physical and 
she will rear men of nobler proportions than the 
world has ever yet seen. She will then be able to 
exert an inconceivable material and beneficial in- 
fluence in the work of the world's progress; first 
as a helper, later as a leader. 

This is to be done only by thorough education, 
which is little more than ordering and establishing 
the habits of mind, thought and action. 

Woman has naturally the heroic qualities of pa- 
tience and endurance. These give to her a fictitious 
strength, enabling her to accomplish wonderful 
results for a time ; but a steady drain on the nerves 

69 



Prose and Verse 

of the average woman, entirely incapacitates her 
for work of any kind. I have wondered if this is 
not the result of her habits of life! I think that 
men would soon appreciate what it is to be "ner- 
vous" if they were put in her place. Now, in order 
that this weakness may be overcome and woman be 
able to accomplish her highest destiny, physical 
training should supplement the cultivation of the 
intellectual powers. 

The phenomenal few who have laid stepping- 
stones to a truer life for their weaker sisters, can 
be easily counted, and many of them have fallen a 
prey to bodily infirmity, long befogs the mental 
faculties were eclipsed. 

Woman, so pre-eminent in the moral work of 
the world, when fully prepared in mind and body, 
will become as prominent in the educating and lift- 
ing up of the people to the highest plane of intel- 
lectual effort. 

We all know that skill must respond to its de- 
mands, whatever the cost to the workman, and a 
woman cannot hope to compete successfully with 
man, whose mental evolution has been favored by 
every circumstance of his life since the world began 
until, she has, by liberal education and application, 
become possessed of his power, and can stand by 
his side, a peer, and perhaps, improve on his methods 
and lead him to the cause of intellectual life and 

70 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

liberty. I am afraid few will be willing to under- 
take the task. 

Now, these mental and physical gymnastics, my 
friends, which are to increase woman's strength and 
power, will result in one good thing at least. It 
will make her wiser as to her own ignorance for it 
is through higher education that we learn to fully 
appreciate how little we know and how much there 
is to learn. 

Locke, the prince of philosophers, when eighty- 
five years of age, wrote, "I do not know what I 
may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to 
have been a boy, playing on the seashore, and divert- 
ing myself in now and then finding a smoother peb- 
ble, or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great 
ocean of Truth lay undiscovered before me." 

Education in its best sense not only inspires 
modesty in the mind of its possessor, but sharpens, 
strengthens and disciplines the mental faculties for 
concert of action under the direction of the will, and 
also matures the judgment, so that it is better able 
to counsel the will aright. Education ennobles the 
mind and impresses upon it that all honest occupa- 
tions are honorable, that in labor, however humble, 
true dignity is enthroned, and that a woman capable 
and willing to work in all the departments of labor, 
deserves the support and respect of all right-minded 
people, and demands her full share of the emolu- 

7i 



Prose and Verse 

ments of the place in which she performs her duties 
faithfully and well. 

We have been told many times too often that 
woman must not take the unbroken path, but keep 
to the King's highway; but the just requirements 
of an enlightened age imperatively demand that 
every fetter of her intellectual oppression be broken, 
and every barrier to her progress be overturned. But 
what a task! what a change in her condition! what 
a combination of circumstances is requisite! What 
splendid abilities! What noble patience! What 
sublime constancy! 

Questions like this do not rest again when once 
begun, and woman's effort to free herself from the 
degradation of inferior education shall never end. 
Into what symmetry her character is expanding 
under the beneficent influence of high mental devel- 
opment! Her intellectual bondage resulted in a 
neglect of the nobler qualities of the mind, which 
worked its own revenge, and the outcome was the 
evolution of a shallow type of womanhood, given 
over to follies, vanity and the smaller ambitions of 
the human soul. But she has at last determined to 
be free of these trammels, ignoble, and destructive of 
the nobler attributes of her mind. She feels able to 
"shake the spear with Achilles" as well as "grasp 
the spindle with Hercules ;" to handle the pen with 
the great men of the world, and fill the firmament 

72 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

of humanity with bright and benignant influences, 
radiating from the glorious orb of her true woman's 
heart. 

To succeed, woman must be resolute and active, 
if she be strong; but if she be weak, absorb knowl- 
edge from every source, and in time indoctrinate the 
world with her lofty ideal of that station the woman 
of the future shall occupy, who is destined to train, 
to discipline, to lead the world in attaining the high- 
est and truest civilization, but she will have to 
"labor and to wait" for the full consummation of 
her desires. In humility, and with diligence, she 
must strive courageously and unceasingly for her 
redemption from captivity, with the fear of God be- 
fore her, and the promises of a golden future to 
cheer her. 

Woman is developing, however, more and more 
every day into that beautiful character Homer 
described — 

"Woman, loveliest of the lovelier kind, 
In body perfect, complete in mind. ,, 

she will be indeed the ideal creature, and in the 
finished excellence of her exalted state she shall have 
but to beckon and her disciples will follow, and cling 
to her with an ardor which nothing can chill or 
abate. 

How many remarkable women ancient and 

73 



Prose and Verse 

modern history have preserved "high on the roll 
which dusty ages keep," for refreshing and inspira- 
tion, when the task of raising women to a higher 
level in literature, the arts, and science to which they 
have already attained seems a labor too great for 
their strength. They are a stimulus that shall urge 
them on to still further exertion for the advance- 
ment of their sex. These conspicuous and famous 
land-marks are found all along the centuries, from 
the earliest recorded history to the present day, and 
they give evidence of genius, scholarship and wis- 
dom unusual and remarkable in woman. 

While the wife was honored, woman continued 
worthy of honor. The Lucretias were the life of the 
Republic, for the higher the standard of woman's 
excellence, the higher will be the man's nature and 
the greater the glory of both. Wherever woman is 
most highly honored, there the race enjoys the 
greatest degree of civil freedom and social happiness, 
and is most rapidly advancing in intelligence, pros- 
perity and civilization. This becomes more apparent 
every year, as woman's education progresses; be- 
cause, as woman rises, she elevates proportionately 
the mind and life of man. This is her mission, and 
it requires no labored proof. 

Look at the world ! Who are the conservators of 
domestic purity, of social decorum, of public senti- 
ment? 

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By Claudia Boddie Money 

"The little true piety which yet exists on earth, 
we owe to women, much more than to theologians/ ' 
says the learned Aime Martin. 

Anna Comnena, who wrote the Alexiad, was 
skilled in rhetoric, philosophy and mathematics. She 
was well versed in languages, and had extensive 
knowledge of law, physics and divinity. 

In sixteen hundred, Helen Cornaro went through 
the philsophy of the schools, thorny as it then was. 
She was a wonderful linguist, and celebrated for 
her scientific attainments. She was known all over 
Europe, and when she died, one of the Academicians 
made a funeral oration, saying she had triumphed 
over three monsters who were at perpetual war with 
her sex, luxury, pride and ignorance, and in this she 
was superior to all conquerors of antiquity, even to 
Pompey himself, although he had defeated three 
great kings — Mithridates, Tigranes and Aristobulus. 

Cicero said of Cornelia, the mother of the Grac- 
chi, "if the name of woman had not distinguished 
her she had deserved the best place among philoso- 
phers, because he had never heard such wise sen- 
tences proceed from any mortal creature as were 
contained in her writings." She was, withal, full 
of the grace and tenderness of the most sensitive 
woman, added to mental endowments rare in man. 

These are some of the many distinguished women 
who shed the radiance of their genius upon the world 

75 



Prose and Verse 

in an age when education was confined to a few, and 
generally the male sex. 

A parallel character in modern times, was Helen 
Ghika Massalsky, a Russian princess. Mons. Du- 
chanel, critic of the Journal des Debats, at that 
time said of her, "each one of her books would suf- 
fice for the reputation of a man." She was invested 
by the Greeks with the citizenship of Greece for her 
efforts in behalf of Candia, which she assisted to 
throw off the oppressor's yoke. This was the first 
time the honor was bestowed on a woman. Yet 
hers was a lonely life and she felt the trials of a 
mind isolated by greatness. She was singularly 
gifted by nature with mental and physical superior- 
ity, and united in an unusual degree masculine 
strength of character, grasp of thought and love of 
research, joined to an ardent and impassioned love 
of the grand, the true, and the beautiful. The sex 
that has once produced such women is rich in ma- 
terial for the development of many more like them. 
How eloquent the example they have set us ! What 
proof of capability they give us to hurl at that 
skepticism which discourages the intellectual eman- 
cipation of women by questioning her capacity to 
enter into the "holy of holies ,, of the most arduous 
and comprehensive mental labors. These are 
enough examples to stimulate and animate our souls 
for all time, and impel us to a persistent and cour- 

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By Claudia Boddie Money 

ageous combat, which the world will in time favor 
and sanction. 

The woman of noble and receptive mind may, by 
industrious study, approximate these standards, but 
it is only genius which can equal them. By a fervor 
that glows, a calm power of the will and unceasing 
effort that will keep it at a steady heat, she may 
accomplish what she desires. To do this, let us see 
what is required of her. 

Locke taught that the extensive culture of the 
intellectual, as well as the physical, and the soul, 
was the method by which he hoped to bring out the 
grandest and noblest product of the creature. This 
solitary flash of light from the brain of the great 
metaphysician, gives us the lesson we should learn 
and teach. Guizot tells us that "civilization is not 
the simple idea of social well-being, but the develop- 
ment of man himself." In other words, the expres- 
sion of the faculties of the mind develops the intel- 
lect, the God-like in man, everything which improves 
the social. 

To be, then, an elevating influence, the corrector 
of the grave imperfections of the social system, 
woman must qualify herself in all earnestness and 
sincerity, for this great object. To cope successfully 
with prejudice, she must be well-equipped, full 
panoplied, armed for attack as well as defense. 

Men love to aim lightly- feathered arrows of scorn 

77 



Prose and Verse 

and ridicule at the "pretensions" of woman, and at 
present her armor has many vulnerable points. We 
must conclude, then, that great knowledge and physi- 
cal culture constitute the rounded perfection of the 
human creature. This is the chord, which struck, 
yields eternal music. A symphony, which moves in 
melody over the surface of our existence here, and 
in another world will be heard echoing forever. 
These forces fill the whole earth, the world about 
us, and that mysterious world of the future, which is 
surrounded by impervious shadows. 

In Ecclesiastes we find this thought : "Knowledge 
is the greatest ornament of a rational soul ; yet, that 
hath its troubles, for in much wisdom there is much 
grief, and he that increaseth wisdom increaseth 
sorrow." 

It has its troubles, for the reason that it is not 
attained without great pain and difficulties, with- 
out laborious and diligent research and vast per- 
plexities. It increases sorrow, for whether we con- 
sider the blindness of our undertakings, or the intri- 
cacies of things themselves, the many dark recesses 
of nature, or the implications of causes and effects, 
or those accidental difficulties which are occasioned 
by the subtlety and entanglement of error, the vari- 
ety of intricate opinions, or the many involutions 
of controversies and disputes which we encounter, 
we are apt to be whirled about with a vertigo of con- 

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By Claudia Boddie Money 

trary probabilities, which, instead of settling, puzzle 
us. 

What wide sympathies, what high desires are in- 
spired by a love of learning! It expands the intel- 
lect, confirms all general principles of law, elucidates 
the natural and metaphysical mysteries of the world ; 
and blesses and enriches the mind which embraces 
it. Ignorance means superstition, rust, decay. 
Knowledge is life-giving, Genius crowns philosophic 
and scientific experiment with the glory of success. 
What happiness women may hope for so long as the 
rewards of wisdom are held forth to invite and en- 
courage intellectual industry! 

There is a great advance-guard of pioneer women, 
whose ample breadth of sense and soul are the na- 
tion's proudest boast, marching even now to victory ; 
and they are giving daily pledges that the threshold 
of Ignorance among women has been passed. Ama- 
teurism in educational methods has been abolished; 
and it is bringing forth a thousand-fold of good 
thoughts and noble deeds, which shall lift their sex 
into a nobler existence. Culture is a rare mental 
alchemy which transmutes dross into pure gold ; and 
it calls for habits, first, of the investigation of sub- 
jects of great and enduring importance; and, sec- 
ondly, the study of books, that in tone of thought, 
possess depths of learning which will stir the facul- 
ties to their utmost. 

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Prose and Verse 

Woman should do everything to strengthen and 
encourage the intellectual and physical powers. If 
she obeys the laws of culture by employing all the 
healthful agencies it prescribes, by systematic train- 
ing, studious deliberation, and analyzing processes of 
thought, they will insure an expansion and invigora- 
tion of all the faculties, and kindly response of the 
mind that will recompense her for all her pains; 
for a large culture gives command of all the mental 
powers, and is useful not so much for the facts it has 
stored, as the effect of the learning faculty devel- 
oped. 

If the mind is exercised and given scope upon 
the infinite diversity of forms and colors, sights and 
sounds and substances in the every-day world, the 
perception will become more acute ; the languid mind 
awakened, the body developed, the soul freer, and 
the whole woman, nobler, purer and grander. When 
this is accomplished, she will then be fitted to in- 
struct and guide the world up to the highest alti- 
tudes of wisdom and virtue. In these modern days 
of luxury and dissipation, as well as high mental 
development in woman, the greater part of her sex 
squander golden moments in worse than idleness. 
If the majority of women go out into life without 
fixity of purpose ; without learning, with no powers 
for good in mind or heart; if they are satisfied to be 
pensioners on others for every intellectual enjoy- 

80 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

ment, or if their days and nights are spent in steady, 
unrelaxing pursuit of pleasure ; their minds dwarfed, 
their hearts indurated, their souls dying, the divinity 
in their nature asleep, is there not so much more 
reason why the few whose aspirations lead them 
"into a diviner ether, an ampler air" for pure 
breaths of wisdom and goodness, should bestir them- 
selves through example, through noble thoughts 
printed in papers, magazines, and the more lasting 
form of books, in the work of purging the world 
of dross, believing that "the administrations of the 
affairs of this world is a God-like work;" and a 
problem in the solution of which woman will not be 
an insignificant factor? 

I wish I could impress on women that the charm 
which most attracts and holds is mental and moral 
beauty — a slow, self-disclosing beauty of the mind, 
unfolding like a flower, and giving pure and lasting 
delight. The love inspired by this influence is more 
lasting, more real, than any simple homage to the 
graces of the body alone. 

In view of all that shall be required at the hands 
of woman by God and man, she should endeavor to 
find what are the true and abiding laws to direct her 
in selecting that which is pure and genuine for her 
guidance. There is the law of kindness. 

In assailing Cant in all its myriad disguises, in 
attacking follies, ignorance and vice in all their 

81 



Prose and Verse 

forms, is there any other power so potent ? A spirit 
of love, justice and moderation will overcome the 
most stubborn evil. Every soul that lives knows 
the balm of sympathy, and the most wicked heart 
that throbs feels it swell beneath the soothing touch 
of pity. 

I am not a believer in woman's suffrage. Her 
sphere is different from man's, and her particular 
duty is to instruct her sons wisely and to instil into 
them high ideals, and in this way use her influence 
for the bettering of politics. 

Woman is to purify the press, that "distinctive 
and remarkable feature of modern literature." 

In journalism, she has already distinguished her- 
self; but the custom of publishing, and the habit of 
reading the columns of vice and crime, filling the 
daily papers, should be discouraged by her with all 
the strength of her will. 

We live in a world of beauty and gladness. It is 
a sort of half-ruined heaven; but it is an Elysian 
into which a dark and tumultuous sea is eternally 
rolling in, to lay low the blooming flowers of tran- 
quility and drown the rich harvests of joy. It is a 
world full of fancies and imagination. 

Let woman struggle to translate these images 
into something better. Let her tell the world that 
all this we shall have in some higher form ; that all 
the beauty around is perishable; but that, although 

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By Claudia Boddie Money- 
its outward form is corruption, there is mind, there 
is soul in it. We know that after all is attained, we 
are dissatisfied. 

When we have reached into the hidden secrets of 
matter, and learned to control and direct its laws, 
we then set mind and spirit to work to get one 
glimpse into the grand mystery of immortality — but, 
the shadows never lessen, the veil is never lifted to 
mortal vision. 

All this world has to give will pass away, but 
wisdom will remain with us. Let woman's be the 
joyful task to point the race to that higher life 
which shall develop the loftiest attributes of the 
mind and soul, and set the world at variance 
with ignorance and sin, two monsters which meet 
us upon the threshold of life, ever stalk before us, 
follow after us, walk beside us, and will lay their 
blighting hand upon the world, so long as time shall 
last. 



83 



The Hidden Self 

"One day lights all to-morrow with its flame 
And all our years catch colors from an hour." 

Among all the surprises of life, I think the great- 
est, are those arising from the glimpses we some- 
times get of the true natures of people with whom 
we have long been intimate. I have had so many 
of these surprises that I begin to think that all 
the real part of the people in this world is the 
unseen. That we do not know men, but only 
phantasms, which we call by men's names; that the 
true central individuality of almost any man is hid- 
den from us. We associate with a person for 
months, perhaps for years, we speak freely to him, 
and he speaks freely to us; we are acquainted with 
his opinions, tastes and sentiments, and we think 
we know him thoroughly, but at last, after many 
days, a moment of real revelation arrives, and we, 
all at once, become aware of hidden depths of 
thought, emotions or passions whose existence we 
had never suspected. 

The effects of such a revelation upon our esti- 
mate of our friend's character, are not merely 
mechanical but chemical, also. Not only is an edi- 

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Prose and Verse 

tion made to our previous knowledge, but by that 
edition, the whole of our previous knowledge is 
transformed. It is not only that a stone has been 
added to a heap, which can, at most but make the 
heap bigger, it is rather that a vial of acid has been 
emptied into a goblet of alkali, which sparkles for 
a moment, and is changed forever. 

When, in the history of a friendship, such a mo- 
ment comes, the sayings and doings of past years, 
which seemed common-place become strongly signi- 
ficant; and those which appeared inexplicable, gain 
charms in the revealing light. The moody melan- 
choly, which clouded that summer evening long ago, 
those wild words, uttered beneath the winter moon, 
the unaccountable speech, the more unaccountable 
silences; a hundred things we had forgotten, flash 
into the memory with their interpretation written 
upon their faces. The rationale of this is somewhat 
complicated. Words, too, are coarse, in comparison 
with the subtle elements of human nature here in- 
volved. One of the great things to be remembered, 
is, that it is spiritually impossible for anyone to 
reveal himself, his inner nature, except to certain 
persons, and even to them, it is impossible, except at 
certain times. If I wish to do so, I can reveal to any 
person, at any time, such portions of my nature as 
I possess in common with all those by whom I am 
surrounded ; — but those portions which in a manner, 

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By Claudia Boddie Money 

make me forever a unique personality, in the great 
universe of souls, I can disclose only to my spiritual 
kindred. Even to them I can never reveal myself 
completely; though they may be able to see enough 
for appreciation and comprehension; and not even 
are we known to ourselves, so great are the abysmal 
depths of individual personality. In the profound 
contemplation of our own nature we are baffled by 
the mystery which surrounds its creation, its work- 
ings, and its final destiny. No man can thoroughly 
know another ; and a deeper truth is, no man knows 
himself. There is a common humanity we recognize 
in every man, there is also an individuality which 
inevitably acts as a concealing veil, and hinders us 
from seeing the mental, moral and spiritual features 
of our friends. 

Humanity is comprehensive, individuality is iso- 
lating. There is always something in our neighbor 
which we do not see, and which, if we did see, we 
should not understand. We know a man in propor- 
tion as his nature is one with our own ; and we can 
never estimate aright the character of the ministers, 
until we know something of the master in whose 
service they stand and wait. Some men are invisi- 
ble to us, because we are ignorant of the events 
which have left an imprint upon them forever. They 
can only be seen in the light cast upon them by the 
story of a life. These are those who can look back 

87 



Prose and Verse 

to some seemingly uneventful moment in their his- 
tory, a moment which is nevertheless, branded into 
their memories by the hand of a strange destiny, and 
looking back, can see that it was the supreme mo- 
ment, which spread a mysterious toning of joy or 
sorrow, or awe, over the color of all future days, 
which struck the first chord of a faint, yet dear 
undersong of existence, which once begun, goes 
on unceasingly, and makes itself heard above the 
grave or gladsome variations played by the touch 
of Circumstance, through all after years. A letter 
is carelessly opened; a chance word drops upon the 
ear; a strange face is seen for an instant; and 
though, still, the days go on with the old monotony, 
there is a subtle, internal change which alters all 
things; though the landscape is still the same, it is 
shrouded in a darkness, or flooded with "a light that 
was never on sea or shore." 

The revelation of a man's real hidden self, is the 
revelation which is seldom made. We tell, per- 
haps, what we call our secrets; but they lie outside 
ourselves, and the great secret of personality remains 
untold. It is impossible with many, perhaps with all, 
that it should be told more at the concurrence of 
certain rare conditions, which are, as I have said, a 
fitting person, and a fitting time. I say told; nay, 
it cannot be expressed ; — it must be felt by the spirit 
which is the indisputable affinity of its own. 

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By Claudia Boddie Money 

To the majority of men, we can never show that 
portion of ourselves, which is deepest and truest, 
and most really ours. We instinctively feel there 
is a want of sympathizing receptiveness in them, 
that would hinder their seeing the pearl, laid at their 
feet and, in many cases alas! a brutal insensitive- 
ness, which would only prompt them to crush it 
beneath their heel. But nature is merciful. It can- 
not suffer any child of hers to dwell in solitary 
places forever; and sometimes, in the course of a 
life, not often, but I dare to believe, always once, we 
recognize by a divinity-bestowed intuition, the much 
longed for, the unspeakably, ineffably, precious kin- 
dred spirit. This intuitive recognition is one of 
the mysteries of humanity. It is the true love at 
first sight, when eye does not simply look into eye, 
but soul gazes into soul. 

There is no appeal against the mystical, delicious 
thrill of affinity. Of the same order, is the inex- 
plicable conviction borne in upon us, perhaps by the 
tones of a voice, or the glance of an eye in a crowded 
drawing-room, that we are in the presence of a 
being whose deepest and most hidden experiences 
have something in common with our own. I think 
it is always with a feeling of strange delight, and 
awed curiosity that this conviction comes. Of 
strange delight, because of the dawning possibility 
of that self -revelation, without which, life is a con- 

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Prose and Verse 

suming and sometimes maddening loneliness of awed 
curiosity, because we know that the moment of 
revelation will be, also, a moment of insight. The 
recognition will be a mutual one; — "A crossing-line 
of light from soul to soul" that the dark recesses 
of another's being are to be lighted up for us with 
all-revealing flames; that in that hour when two 
spirits mingle "We shall know, as we are known." 
Sometimes that hour comes soon; sometimes it tar- 
ries long; but sooner or later it will come, heralded, 
perhaps by common-place conversation, into which 
neither speaker throws his mind, still less his heart, 
or soul; or perhaps, by those not common-place 
silences, during which minutes often perform the 
the work of hours of speech. 

It comes, a beneficent angel, with a double bless- 
ing under its wings. This unveiling of another's 
personality when the process is like this is strange, 
but not really surprising. Feeling runs far in ad- 
vance of knowledge. We feel that things are true 
long before we have proven their truth. In like 
manner we know the story our friend has to tell 
us, for we have felt its glory upon our spirit, and it 
seems superfluous, to make it intelligible in words. 
This speaking of two soul's long seeking each other 
has all to be made in this peculiar transcendental 
manner. If only by words we could reveal our- 
selves, we should remain forever unseen. Words 

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By Claudia Boddie Money 

are sometimes inefficient for the full expression of 
ideas; generally inefficient for the full expression 
of conditions, by which, I mean those constant states 
of being, those relations to all other beings which 
in every person are unique. The deepest things are 
those which come seldomest to the surface. The 
undercurrent often runs in a contrary direction to 
the one which is apparent; and in this matter, the 
currents of human character resemble those of the 
ocean. How often do we find in our sorest need in 
some freind or acquaintance a marvelous tender- 
ness, which a hard repellant manner has concealed. 
It needs no great display to make the real man visi- 
ble to us. A single sentence, sometimes a single 
glance will begin and complete the work of revela- 
tion. How many of my acquaintances are to me 
unseen. Our hands daily meet; our natures do not 
assimilate; our hearts are strangers; eye looks into 
eye, but soul hides itself from soul. It must always 
be so in this land of shadows; there must be in all 
this great creation, the complement of our own souls. 
The viewless shade that haunts us has assumed yet 
no human shape. We sometimes feel it near, and 
clutch eager hands to grasp the joy; and lo! it is 
as unreal as the lights and shadows that play upon 
a wooded hillside. The prize hangs upon a distant 
peak, seemingly near, just beyond the reach; but 
receding farther and farther the more the eager 

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Prose and Verse 

pursuer hastens toward it. Supremest hour of our 
fate, when the beloved comes, our souls mate, and 
claims us! so long divided! so long unfound! not 
in wild ecstasy, not with throb of passion, or tumult 
of soul, but in calm majesty, with quiet smile, will 
he steer his gentle bark beside our own, full-freighted 
with golden joys and sweet blossoms of sympathy 
and blissful hopes, fulfilling all it promised. 



92 



"Be Faithful and True" 

The Fairy of the Silver Lily, a Legend of the 
Mountain Side, with a Moral. 

A Story for Children. 

(From the Washington Post.) 

ONCE upon a time, high up amid the grasses 
and the ferns on a mountain side lived a 
poor woman ; lived as uncheered and unpitied 
as though she belonged to neither man nor God. 
There was not only want in the humble cot, but the 
dreadful mountain fever was there, augmenting the 
sad calamities of her daily life. 

Notwithstanding this there was neither repining 
nor despair in the heart of the woman; for though 
poverty and grief had long ruled her life, over every 
trial of temper and pride she had been victorious. 

There was more true heroism in one day of her 
sad existence than in all the bold deeds of chivalry 
among the courtiers on the mountain beyond, where 
the towers and battlements of the King's grand 
castle could be seen through the trees. She thanked 
heaven hourly that her home had been gladdened 
and brightened by its most cherished gift to man — 
love. 

93 



Prose and Verse 

The golden-haired, blue-eyed child, sitting on the 
doorstep in the young radiance of the morning 
sun, which cast a halo of light about her, was the 
mother's delight, and yet her great care; and the 
look of tender yearning she turned upon her plainly 
showed the fear that she might very soon be called 
upon to leave this beloved child motherless and 
friendless. 

The fever raging in her veins she knew was bring- 
ing her daily nearer the end of all pain and sorrow. 

The little Lilias turned her gentle eyes, whose 
clear glances mirrored the beauty of her soul, toward 
her mother as she heard the heavy sighs which pro- 
claimed her suffering. 

"Mother, dear," she said, "do you hear the bird 
this morning ? He has just come home with some- 
thing in his bill, and the mother-bird looks as though 
she would like to fly to meet him. ,, 

"Yes, my child ; I hear the sounds of joy. They 
are love notes. Love makes perpetual music in the 
world, and passing through our lives makes them 
blessed. 

"This is a delightful world, dear, and full of good ; 
and though it bestows sweet smiles on some and 
chills others with its pitiless cold, none can be 
wrapped altogether in its shadow, whose hearts are 
kept bright and warm with the love we feel and the 
love we inspire. 

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By Claudia Boddie Money 

"Our lives, darling, cannot be entirely dark as 
long as we are true and faithful to each other. " 

She paused, as if to weigh the next words, that 
she might so freight them with divine tenderness 
and gentleness as not to pierce too deeply her 
daughter's young heart. 

"But," she continued, "my little one, we can never 
be without love, though the whole world turn from 
us, the friends die and leave us., for we are ever in 
God's keeping, and His Almighty arm shall hold us 
close through life, even unto death, and we can rest 
upon its firm support in this world as long as we 
are willing to be upheld by Him. 

"We have some time to say farewell to all of 
life, and often we are glad when the time comes 
to speak it. 

"Hearts grow very hard and cold from selfish- 
ness. 

"Vanity overcomes the purest soul, and leads 
along a flowery path to ruin. 

"The way of falsehood and deceit is planted with 
thorns and nettles, and will wound tender natures; 
then, my own sweet child, every day of our lives, 
we should sweep all such evils from our minds, and 
keep our souls fair and pure." 

Lilias, with a startled and distressed air, turned to 
her; for, although her mother often sowed the seed 
of some good principle in her daughter's mind, after 

95 



Prose and Verse 

this fashion, the poor, young thing felt there was 
more in the words than the mere lesson they 
taught. 

''Mother, you are not going to leave me," she 
cried. "You have always told me if I were faithful 
and true God would never forget me; ah! What 
have I done that He should desert me now? 

"I am not afraid, and you must try to believe, too, 
that in some way we will get help." 

She bravely kept back the tears, and tried, by 
every loving artifice, to bring a smile to her mother's 
pale, sad face; but she had long since drained the 
wells of her own hopefulness, to feed the exhausted 
fountain which age and disappointment had dried 
up in her mother's heart. 

How, indeed, was her beautiful child to be de- 
livered from misery and want? This precious 
little flower, which had bloomed forth so brightly 
amid the dark surroundings, and made a paradise of 
the barrenness around her; and how could she but 
shudder at the thought that the very loveliness of 
form and character might be her destroyer. 

"Yes, darling, I will try to hope for your sake, 
and only for your sake, am I unresigned; but if it 
is God's will, it must be right, you know. 

"Little wayside flowers like you must oftentimes 
be covered with the dust of the highway. It may 
be you will be trampled upon, but like the spray 

96 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

of balm we sometimes see pressed under careless 
feet, may you give out the fragrance of noble and 
loving thoughts, as it gives out healing odors when 
bruised." 

* * * * 

After a weary day for mother and child, the de- 
clining sun, rich and glowing, sent its last sinking 
rays over the river below, and lit up the little garden, 
and the pale face of the despairing girl who 
watched it. 

The pretty, simple mountain flowers she had 
planted were blooming freshly in their beds; the 
cooing note of the mother-bird trembled on the air, 
as she sat on the cosy nest in the tree above. The 
trees seemed to shiver in the fresh wind which came 
moaning up the valley, and touched the river into 
greater beauty, as it curled and rippled beneath 
its breath. 

The heart of sad little Lilias grew heavier, and 
the tears began to fall, in spite of her wish to be 
brave. The piece of dry bread she ate was all the 
food she had tasted the whole day, and it was with 
difficulty she swallowed it, for the bitter sobs she 
was trying to repress were choking her. 

"Oh!" she thought, "if I might only go with 
her, my darling mother, to heaven, where there are 
none friendless, nor poor, nor sick. 

"Oh! dear Father in heaven, do remember me." 

97 



Prose and Verse 

The sun disappeared behind the opposite moun- 
tain, and twilight was settling down upon the world. 
No longer able to control her grief, Lilias sat sob- 
bing, with her face in her hands. 

Suddenly she heard a plaintive voice : 

"My child, why art thou grieved?'' 

Looking up, she beheld a little old woman leaning 
against the tree, and the dim eyes were gazing piti- 
fully upon her. 

She arose and began to move hastily away, but 
in the tremulous tones of age the poor creature said : 

"I am faint with hunger; I have not eaten for 
more than a day ; in mercy give me food and drink." 

All Lilias' fears passed away at these appealing 
words, and she went quickly into the house and 
brought her last loaf of bread and a cup of water. 

"This is all I have, but I have eaten; sit down 
and rest." 

The old woman ate the simple food with eager- 
ness, and with many thanks began to arise, saying: 

"I am stronger now, and must travel on." 

"Oh! no; do not go," cried the child. "My 
mother is very ill — we are all alone, and it is late, 
and you are weak and tired." 

"Thanks, my dear, I accept your kindness. I can 
at least relieve the loneliness of your watch." 

Lilias led the way into the cot, where her mother 
lay in a stupor from fever and exhaustion. She 

98 



By Claudia Boddie Money- 
brought a chair for her aged guest, and said gently : 

"Rest here until I prepare a place for you to 
sleep." 

This soon accomplished, she took the odd looking 
creature into the chamber adjoining and pointing 
to a pallet of shawls and and blankets, she said: 
"This is the very best I can do; but it is not so 
hard as it looks." 

As Lilias was about to leave, she put out a de- 
taining hand, and said : "Get me a bowl, fill it with 
white river sand, and bring me some fresh water 
from the spring." 

The little maiden obeyed, wonderingly ; and when 
she had brought them, watched her with eager in- 
terest as she drew from a deep black bag a small 
bulb. She buried it in the shining sand, sprinkled 
it with the water, and as she did so chanted these 
singular words : 

"Silver lily, sweet and rare, 

Ere another day shall dawn 
Let thy fragrant bloom appear, 

Fresh and beauteous as the morn, 
To thee, Candida the Fair, 

For faithful maid I lift the prayer." 

Lilias, with wide open eyes — and her fears all 
returned at the curious words of the old woman — 
took the bowl and set it on the window sill, afraid 

99 



Prose and Verse 

to look around, not knowing what might meet her 
eyes. 

As she was about to leave the room again, her 
new friend said: 

"Stay a moment; I wish to say something to you. 
I wish to thank you for your thoughtful kindness, 
and to tell you that the humblest effort to do good is 
not worthless. Like the loaf of bread and cup of 
water you gave me, our offerings are considered 
by the wisdom of a Divine love. What it lacks in 
value does not affect the result it will have in His 
sight. 

"It works in those who make the gift the highest 
good. It deepens the sympathies and opens the heart 
to the power of loving better ; for it is love which is 
God's greatest boon to man. 

"Be faithful and true, and you will always find 
that love which is sure and faithful, and your heart's 
desire will ever be given you." 

As Lilias lay down beside her mother she remem- 
bered that twice that day the same words had been 
spoken to her, "be faithful and true;" and a peace 
and calm stole into her heart; the clouds seemed 
clearing away, and sleep soon came to the sweet 
tired eyes. 

She was awakened very early the following morn- 
ing by her mother's voice, calling to her in eager 
tones : "Get up, dear child, and see what is the deli- 

ioo 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

cious fragrance that fills the room. It seems to give 
me strength and hope. It is life-giving odor from 
heaven." 

Lilias sprang up quickly in alarm; but in a mo- 
ment her own senses were almost overpowered by 
the perfume. 

She ran to the room where she had left the queer 
little woman, but she was nowhere to be seen. 

"Oh! Mother, where is the brown old woman I 
left sleeping in the other room last night?" 

"You are dreaming, my dear; no one has been 
here." 

"Oh, yes, I brought in an old dried-up woman, 
made a bed for her, and she gave me — oh ! it is, it is 
the flower she planted that smells so sweet ; and dear 
Mother," she cried, with clasped hand, and tearful 
eyes, "you will live." 

She ran in haste to the window and there burst 
upon her wondering gaze the delicate florescence of 
the silver lily. The slender flower crowned the state- 
ly stem, clothed with glossy leaves, and flooded the 
room with a penetrating fragrance more powerful 
than any flower the world had ever seen. 

"Oh, Mother! it is a fairy lily. It could never 
have grown in a single night if it were not, and its 
perfume will bring you life and health, and fortune 
to us both. The old woman was no real old woman, 
but a powerful fairy." 

IOI 



Prose and Verse 

She took up the bowl, handling it like some holy 
relic. She kissed the waxen petals; and no sooner 
did her lips touch them, than a tiny creature, an 
inch high, appeared from the lily's heart, and stood 
upon the fragrant rim. Her dress and wings were 
of transparent gauze, and a golden light shone 
through her form, and a halo of brightness encircled 
her head. In a faint voice, but sweet as a summer 
zephyr, and more than human in its musical soft- 
ness, she said — 

"From the airy regions of space I come ; 
Above the earth I have my home. 

Above the stars that nightly whirl 
In solemn courses round the sun — 

Above the clouds, which float and curl 
Their fleecy softness round the moon; 
Above these scenes of guilt and woe, 
Of crimes and sorrows here below, 
A place where pain nor death shall come— 
'Tis there I have my radiant home. 
Great Candida, the fair ! 
The friend of all the pure in heart, 
The just, the faithful, and the true; 
And I am come, sweet maid, to you. 
I bring thee health, and wealth, and joy. 
Then from no virtue e'er depart, 
Thy life shall then, with color bright 
And days with melody be filled. 
The sun shall shine with fairest light, 

102 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

Thy sorrows be forever stilled, 
And all thy heart's desires be given — 
For pure and faithful hast thou been, 
And o'er thy future I shall reign." 

The sweet words thrilled Lilias to the soul, and 
she looked with awe upon the mingled grace and 
dignity of the fairy queen. 

Before she could recover sufficiently from her 
astonishment to reply men rushed by in headlong 
haste, breathless and panting, crying aloud : 

"The King's son is lost!" 

"Who has seen the King's son ?" 

The fairy Candida listened for an instant to the 
uproar, which now grew louder as the courtiers, 
with the King at their head, came dashing along the 
mountain path. 

"Go bring the King to me, little maid," she said ; 
"he shall find his son through me alone." 

Lilias ran out and hailed the King. 

"Come with me, sire, and your son shall be re- 
stored to you." 

"Take care, my child," said he, "how you deceive 
me. My heart is very sore. Why do you lead the 
way to the hut? Is my son there? Does he live? 
Is he well?" 

"No, sire ; he is not there, but there is one within 
who can tell you where he may be found." 

The King followed her, bidding his courtiers re- 

103 



Prose and Verse 

main without. He entered the poor hut, but saw 
nothing but the sick woman sitting upright, the 
flush of fever gone from her cheek, her strength 
returned, and the light of happiness beaming in her 
eyes. He turned to her eagerly, but at that instant 
the penetrating odor of the magic flower became so 
strong that he abruptly demanded what it was. His 
eyes grew softer and alight with hope, the color re- 
turned to his face, the despairing frown disappeared 
from his brow, and it seemed as if some beneficent 
power had all at once lifted his heart into a region 
of delight. 

"Tell me," he cried, "what is the fragrance that 
permeates my very soul, and changes my whole 
nature ?" 

Then the soft voice of the fairy broke the silence. 

"Turn thou, and hear what I shall say to thee; 
Who mocks and scoffs at all that's good and true 
Thou cruel, hardened son of sin and crime ! 
Take heed that what I shall demand of you 
Be now obeyed, and in all future time, 
Or thy son's face thou never more shalt see, 
Think not all things are subject unto thee; 
Some day thou must to that Great Power yield, 

Which rules the earth and all the world in space; 
Thy heartless, selfish life has well nigh sealed 

The fate of him — the last of all thy race. 
Forsake thy sins, and vow thyself to me, 

104 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

And I will give thee strength, and joy, and peace. 
Where poverty and mis'ry now abide, 
Where fear and danger in thy kingdom reign, 

Will wealth, and bliss, and hope in full flood tide, 
And happiness, with all her bounteous train 
Of blessings rare, shall bring thee sweet release 
From all the passions of thy darkened soul; 

For thou shalt lift the burden and the care 
From off the hearts of many a sorrowing son 

Of toil, who labors long, for but a pittance bare — 
His task, though bitter, when 'tis haply done, 

Shows him no prospect of a brighter goal. 
Subdue thy passions, chide thy fierce desires; 

Listen with patience to the poor man's plea. 
Make glad the widow's and the orphan's heart; 

Be merciful and just and ever flee 
Temptation to forswear thy noble heart, 

Which to be held may need the chast'ning fires 
Of grief, which turns from out the soul of man 

All dross and leaves it fit for that bright land, 
Where happy spirits dwell, and angel lyres 

Celestial music make, a holy band." 

Joy, love, and terror, chased each other across 
his face. His eyes had been glued on the lovely fairy 
queen as though some power had held him spell- 
bound. They could not turn his gaze from her. 

Clasping his hands, he stood before her with tears 
of remorse and repentance in his softened eyes, and 
in trembling tones cried out: 

ios 



Prose and Verse 
"Great power, I yield." 

"Follow thou, then, whe'er this fragrance leads, 
And thy sweet child in safety shalt thou find. 
I will henceforth, in all the years to come, 
Watch ever faithfully o'er thee and thine. 
This flower will die; I shall depart to roam 
O'er worlds afar, where mortal ken may read 
The bliss and glory they foretell, though faint, 
Prepared by God for each redeemed saint. 
Never forget thou'rt pledged my will to do, 
And to thyself be 'faithful then, and true.' " 

The fairy disappeared, the lily slowly faded, and 
dropped from its stem ; but like a column of incense 
the fragrance arose and enveloped the King. 

He extended his hands toward the spot where 
the beautiful presence had been, and cried : 

"Oh! thou bright vision, even as thou diest away 
before me, wan and voiceless, the sense of what thou 
hast left in my heart, wilt hold me captive forever! 

"Thy blessed promises linger in my ear; sweet 
words which floated with such ethereal softness from 
thy lips. 

"Exquisite being ! thy willing slave I shall ever be. 

"Be always near to guide and save me." 

With bowed head the King left the hut, and 
called to his waiting courtiers to follow him up the 
mountain side. 

106 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

They looked with amazement at the changed 
countenance of their master, but silently obeyed his 
command. 

The rich perfume, like a pillar of cloud, led him 
up the mountain, over dangerous steeps, into the 
deepest wilds of the forest. 

Under the shade of a great tree, with eyes set, 
and lips close drawn, deadly pale, sat the boy, watch- 
ing a serpent which moved towards him. 

The forked tongue was drawn in and out, the 
fatal hiss cut the still air, the lithe body began to 
coil in horrid folds, when suddently he reared his 
full length and fell dead. 

The lily's odor had reached and destroyed him 
ere the father's hand could be stretched out to rescue 
his child. 

* * afe * 

Many years have passed since then. Lilias is 
happy in the King's great castle. Her loveliness and 
virtues won the heart of the King's son, and the 
King, in giving them his marriage blessing, in- 
voked that of the lily queen, whose beautiful image 
was enshrined in his heart. The land is full of 
prosperity and joy. Happy peasants till the ample 
fields, happy faces look out from the doorways of 
the poor — and gratitude and content reign in the 
heart of the King. 

Moral— Be "faithful and true/' and let love be 

107 



Prose and Verse 

the supreme guiding power of your life, and like 
Lilias, you, too, shall be received into the household 
of the King of Kings. 



108 



Brandy's Story 



I 



«"|[S this old Brandy?" 

"Who dat callin' er me? S'cuse me, sah; 
I didn't know 'twas er genelmun speakin. 
I ain't much spry aim dese ole laigs now, sah, so 
please to s'cuse mer not gittin' up, an ef it's ole 
Brandy yers er seekin', I'se de man; un ef yer has 
cnny bizness wid me, Keziah 'ull git yer er cheer. 

"I doan' know yer, moster; I'se gittin' nigh awn 
to er hundud, sah, un I knows de soun uv ev-vy 
voice 'bout yere, un mer ole eyes is mighty nigh 
sunk ter de back uv mer haid, un mer teef is all 
gone; but I hain' never herrn ner seed yer fo' dis, 
sah. 

"Dats my name, do', sah, 'Brandy,' das de name 
mer Moster gin me way back yonner ter ole Norf 
Kulliner. He wuz er gret han' fur ole Nash 
Brandy, wuz moster, er gret han' ter meek it, un 
ter drink it. Yah, yah, yah-h-h ! 

"I kin see 'im now, er gittin' up yerly in de maun- 
dy fo' sun up, un walkin' fas' ter de little rum whar 
he in mosly set, whar de sidebode wuz wid de licker, 
un de lump sugar, un de pitcher er watter wuz alius 
settin' ready ter han'. 

109 



Prose and Verse 

"I useter meek de fiah, un shine de dog-iuns un 
shubbul un tongs, un red de hyath; un I wuz sho' 
ter be dar jis in de nick er time whin he come in. 
My name wuz John, den ; but one day moster come 
in er 1-e-etle after me; un he say 7 onn > somebody bin 
er stealin' my brandy; what does you know erbout 
it?' 

" 'Stealin' er brandy, sah?' I sez. 'I ham' seed 
no brandy sence dat las' drap yer gin me fo' yer 
went to cote. Whar's de brandy, enny how ?' 

'Yer orter seed Moster den! His eyes wuz ez 
blue ez er gander, un dey jis twinkle in his haid 
same ez er star er winken'; but he meek his voice 
powerful mad-lack. 

" Whar's de brandy, yer black rogue? Why, de 
mos' uv it is in yo' stummick. Yer did'n' know ez 
how I come home fum cote las' night, did yer, John? 
Un yer thought dat I'd furgit how much I lef in de 
banter fo' I git back; but, ole man, de rum smell 
lack nuthin' but brandy.' 

"Lawd, sah, how I was ketched! Dat wuz er 
Gawd's trufe; but I hilt out, un I say: 'Moster, dat 
Nash brandy er yo'n, sah, is all-fiahed sweet-smellin ; 
stuff ennywhar, e'b'n fo' yer draws der stopper. I 
tell yer, sah, how hit is. Yer h'ain hed none fur er 
day er two, un yer furgit how strong un good hit 
smelt.' 

"Moster nuver say er nuther word; but atter dat 

no 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

sayin' er mine, he say he never gwine call me nuthin' 
but 'Brandy'; un he didn't nuther: but shur! dem 
air chillum bouten yere, un tehole Norf Culliner; 
dey knows dat ain' my righten name. 

"Does I 'member Miss Is'bel? Does I? Gret 
Gawd, moster, who is you ennyhow? Is you 
knowed 'er! 

"Yer ky-arn' be none er dem nabur boys what 
n'useter be 'bout yere, caze you is white h'y'ar'd un 
wrinkledy faced. 

"Yer say sorrer gin 'm ter yer? 

"Lawd, sah, den dis ole haid er mine orter hed 
be lack dat cott'n patch fur white, un mer face lack 
Kiziah's ole wood washbode. Sorrer ! yer ain' lackly 
ter hed mo'n my white folks un me, caze what trub- 
ble dem trubble me. I sot er sto' by my ole mos' un 
mis', un dat little gal chile er d'eirn. Dey is all 
gaun, un dey lef me yere, un I'se been lonesome lack 
y'ever sence. Yer didn' know my moster un mistis? 
Well, yer missed er heap. 

"My Miss n'useter say whin de niggers steal un 
lie, un sarve de debul gin'ully. 'Mister Ross, dey's 
no mo'n chillun; doan be too hard awn 'em. I 
cood'n look my Gawd in de face, ef I mustreats de 

lack er dem.' 

"She n'useter git in de ca'iage, wid de gray hauses, 
un dey er prancin', un ev'vything er shinin', un Si- 
mon, he er settin' up dar wid glubs aun his ole 



in 



Prose and Verse 

black rusty nans', er lookin' lack he own de whole 
on 'em! 

"Un den Mahaley, she'nd come out un fetch er 
baskit ; er gret big un, too ; un yer'd see Simon turn 
dem hauses thow de big gate inter de main road, un 
we knowed Mis' wuz boun' fur de planashun whar 
de quarters wuz, ter c'y'ar de sick uns sup'n good, 
un ter see how dey wuz er gittin' on in de hospittul. 
Caze Moster he done put one up, part fur de 
women, un part fur de men. Ole mam' Lishy, she 
un ole omun Lurany, dey done de tendin'. 

"Mis' say, whin Miss Is'bel ax er why she doan 
let do oberseer's wife see 'bout dat (un I kin see 
Mis's saf brown eyes t'well yit, wid 'er heart er 
shinin' in 'em) : 'My darter,' she say, 'dey is my 
keer. De Laud, He let 'em come inter my keepin', 
bofe soul un body, un I'se sponsbul fur 'em, not de 
obserseer's wife.' Un den Miss Is'bel she say : 'Ma' 
you is so good, un so many 'pens on you fur ev'ry 
thing; I doan know what we' ud do if you wuz 
ter die.' 

"I wuz stannin' by un I say, 'Miss Is'bel, for 
Gawd's sake doan talk 'bout dat! Doan call DefFs 
name in dis house; he mout hear you.' 

"Yer wan'ner hear 'bout Miss Is'bel? Yer knowed 
dat chile ? 

"Moster, Moster, sah, hit meeks mer ole eyes feel 
lack day wuz er runnin' blood, un were blood er 

112 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

turin' to ice whin I thinks 'bout dat little gal. 'Sah, 
she wuz all white un blue un gole. Her skin wuz 
pint-blank lack dem roses aun dat bush, white cream, 
un 'er le-etle pinky 'bout de cheeks un chin some- 
times, but in gin'nilly she wuz mighty pale; un de 
doctur he wuz fear'd dar wuz sup'n nuther ail'did 
her heart. E'b'n de little mouf wuz mosly pale- 
lack. 

"I useter tell Mis' ef she'd cut, awf some er dat 
yaller hy'y'ar er hangin' low her wais', hit 'd hep 
'er. Hit wuz jis ez yaller! un shiny, lack gole; un 
wavy lack Prince's mane (dat wuz Moster's ridin' 
hause). Her eyes dey wuz blue lack Moster's, but 
dey wuz lonesome lack, un sof lack Miss, un Lawd, 
how we niggers did love dat chile ! 

"Ise n'useter say Mis' ain gwine raise 'er, coze 
she lack er sper't now. 

"Sho' nuff, she did'n mo'n raise 'er, coze she die 
when she wur sebenteen yur ole ; but ole moster wuz 
daid ; done kilt in the y'army, un Mis', she wuz daid 
too; un de debul wuz turn loose in dis Ian', un my 
po' little Miss Is'bel, one er his imps he come er 
long, un he temp' 'er; un whin he temp' 'er, un she 
foun' hit wuz er imp er sa't'n, hit kilt er, sah, but, 
bless Gawd! she kep' dat little white soul er her'n 
jis ez pu'or ez er angel; un tuck it long dat way ter 
Heb'n un her mammy. 

"Lem'me git mer pipe. Naw, naw, sah, thankee 

113 



Prose and Verse 

sah, I doan keer bout no seegyar. I lacks mer ole 
pipe. 

"Hit's bin season wid backer fur five yur; un hits 
many de time I sets in de dark, un de tas' lef in it 
is all de 'backer dar's in it. 

"Ole Mis' she lef me dis house, un ten acre er 
groun'; un whin de rummertiz ain' too powerful- 
lack, I wucks it; in un de fence cawners I plants ma 
'backer. 

"Some times de wums dey gets de bigges' part; 
un den dat big-foot Jim, he gits his sheer, case he 
air de nocountes' varmint in all dis range er country, 
un I tels 'im ef he'd wuck at er corn-crap same ez 
he wucks at stealin', he'ud nuver wan' fur nuthin'. 

"Yas, Moster, I is er furgit'n 'bout what I 'lowed 
ter tell yer — but I 'ud lack ter know dis', sah, what 
bis'ness hits er y'on 'bout Miss Is'bel? My Mis' 
us'ter tell me fam'ly 'fairs mus' be kep' ter yerself 
un I hez shet what I knows 'bout my little Mis' in 
my min', unter nobody hev I y'ever spoke de word 
'bout what broke 'er heart un kil'ter. 

"Dat po' little heart wuz so' ernuff enny how, un 
whin dat debul come er speakin' saf un sweet fo 'er, 
she jis' up un b'leeve ev'vy word he say; un how dat 
man could er bin de bad un he wuz I c'y'arn meek 
up my min, caze he wuz, er well-spoke man. He 
wuz lackly lookin', un Miss Nancy, whin she brung 
'im yere fum de hospittul, de fus' thing she ax 

114 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

'im is he married. Den he tell 'er he is a single 
man, un he hed nuver love er 'omun ter de puppus 
er marriage in his life time. 

"He think Miss Nancy wan'ner know all bouten 
'im ; un he say, un he say it lack er man what mean 
it; un his eyes shine, un he look gran-lack un solum, 
un he ston up un hoi' ter de cheer, un he trimble, 
caze he wuz mouty weak : 

" 'Mam,' says he, 'I hez er mother un two sis- 
ters in Muzzurer, un by birf un ideation I is er 
genTmun; un hits my 'tention. ter be abul ter 
say when I gits back home dat I not er shame to 
face 'em.' 

"Miss Nancy, she b'leeve 'im, un I, too. 

"Moster, what wuz dat you say! Hit wuz true?" 

"What does you know 'bout dat time ?" 

"Dat man wuz yo' frien'?" 

"Well, den, sah, lem me tell yer, ef dat man is 
er livin' 'pun de top up dis earf, you tell him fur 
me dey is all gone but ole Brandy; un he is nuthin' 
but er ole haf blin' nigger, but dat dis ole nigger 
spises 'em; un dars 'im, whin de day er gegermen' 
come, ter say who hez de bes' right ter face ole mis' 
un master un de Lawd, wid de tale er how he kep' 
his faif wid er po' innersen chile, who nuver hed 
nobody ter take keer on 'er, un is daid in her grave, 
un is done tole all 'er trubbel fo' dis ter de good 
Lawd, er layin' aun 'er ma's bres'. 



Prose and Verse 

"I sees 'em many er night in mer trabbuls; un 
whin I gits dar, Mis' un dat little gal's er gwine ter 
say: 'Come heah un set right at my feet, Brandy, 
un look de Lawd in de face ; un yer need'n be shame, 
nuttier;' but how it gwine be wid dat Chall'ner? 
Why, sah, he gwine git one look er dem 'proachin' 
eyes er Mis', un he ain' gwine wait fur ter hear 
what de Lawd say; un he gwine cre-e-p down ter 
dem regins whar de debul keep, un he gwine be 
shame tel look eb'n ole Sat'n squr' in de face. 

"Well, ez I wuz er sayin', he moutly cebed his 
looks, un Miss Nancy un Miss Is'bel, dey wuz er 
doin' ev'vything ter git 'im well. 

"De chickins wuz er squallin' ev'ry night, for 
Dinah she hed briled chicken fur brekfus', un chick- 
in pie fur dinner, t'well one day Miss Is'bel sorter 
smile, un say, 'Brandy, ax Dinah ef she don' think 
dar is danger we 'ull sprout fedders ef we keep 
auner eatin' chickin.' 

"De water milyuns, sah, un de peaches we hed, 
wuz er caution ; un de cakes ! un, good mussy ! all de 
good vittuls dey hed, mecks my mouf watter ter 
min' 'bout dat time, plum 'twell dis day. 

"I hed to bresh de flies awf'n 'im whin he wuz er 
tecken' er nap, un fetch in cool water fum de spring, 
un git Miss Is'bel honey fur ter put in some er dat 
same Nash brandy fur er toddy; un I alius rode ole 
Poll wid de flop yur, long side on 'em whin dey tuck 

116 



By Claudia Boddie Money- 
rides in de buggy 'hin' ole Jerrel caze de Yankees 
had come erlong un tuck all de hauses but dem two, 
un two ole mules; un one er dem wuz ez blin' ez er 
bat. 

"Twan't long fo' I seed dat Miss Is'bel wuz gittin' 
right down happy ergin; un he 'gin ter pearten up 
right smart; un one day I seed 'im slip his arm 
'roun' Miss Is'bel's wais'; un de blood come flyin' 
ter 'er face; un I knowed right den what wuz der 
matter. 

"Dat night whin I seed 'im walkin' up un down 
de paf in front er de house er smokin' er seegyar, 
I walk up ter 'im, un I say: 

" 'Mis'r Chall'ner, I seed you un Miss Is'bel ter- 
day, un I wants ter ax yer one thing fo' yer goes 
enny fudder wid dis bizness. Is yer honis' 'bout dis ? 
I wants ter baig yer ter 'member dat dat lam' is ez 
good ez one uv Gawd's angels; un dars nobody ter 
teck 'er part but Miss Nancy, un Miss Is'bel, she kin 
meek 'er see outen her eyes ev'ry pop.' 

"He look me pint-blank in de face, un his eyes 
hed no winkin' nur blinkin' in 'em, but dey look 
mouty nigh ez saf ' ez Miss Is'bel's, un he say : 

" 'Bless yer, ole Brandy, ez Gawd ez my judge, 
I loves 'er wid all my heart, un' ef love kin meek 
'er happy, den she'ull nuver know er sorrer,' un I 
did'n' mistrus' 'im, not er minit. Well, Mis'er 
Chall'ner he got well, un' he say he must 'er git 

117 



Prose and Verse 

back ter de reegermint, caze he wuz er Kunnel un' 
dat Miss Is'bell she must' mar'y 'im. 

"She look mouty shame; but den, Dinah un me, 
un Miss Nancy, we say it wuz fur de bes', case de 
times wuz monstous hard, un we wuz all ole, un 
un so she greed ter it. 

"He didn' hab no good close, but Miss Is'bel un 
Miss Nancy dey go in de dressin' rum nex' to Miss' 
and Master's ole room, un dey stay dar er long time, 
un whin dey come out day eyes wuz all red, un I 
knowed what dey ud bin er doin'. 

"Miss Nancy, she say, 'Brandy, teck dese close 
un hang 'en awn de line ter ar;' un sho' 'miff, dey 
wuz de very close my Moster ston' up in whin he 
marry Miss Is'bel's ma, un I say, 'What Miss Is'bel 
gwine ter war?' un she teck me in de rum un she 
onpin er piece er ole linen sheet un she say: 

"Dat is her Pa's weddin' suit, dese is her blessed 
Ma's, e'b'n ter de shoes un de silk stockin's; un 
jis ez dem two looked den, so will dese two look now 
— un de tears come ter 'er eyes, un I hed to wipe 
'em outen dese yer ole eyes er mine, too, caze it 
seem so solum-lack; an jis lack de ole time wuz not 
so very fur er way ez dey wuz. 

"I wen' out in de yard to hang out dem things, 
un whin I shuck out de coat, sup'n nur fell out. I 
picked it up. Hit wuz a le-etle white rose, all dried 
up; un 'roun' un 'roun' wuz wrop er piece er hy'ar 

118 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

jis like dat on Miss Is'bel's haid; but I knowed 't 
want her'n. Hit didn' smell nat'ral, un I stuck it 
back whar it come fum. 

"Arter I got thew, I jes sot down aun one dem 
benches, unner er magnoly tree, un my sper't hit 
left my po' ole kearcuss un trabbul back ter de day 
whin Mos' wo' dem close. 

"I cood'n see nuthin' but Mos's eyes er larffn'; 
un mis' er lookin' at 'im kin'er sof un sweet, un 
skeery-lack ; un den I couldn't think er nuthin' nex', 
but de day dey bring 'im home fum de wah shot in 
de bres, un he jis hed time to put his wife un little 
gal inter de keepin' er de good Lawd, un say 'teck 
keer er Brandy/ un lif his hans un say, 'Lawd Jesus, 
cebe my sper't,' un he wuz daid ; un den Mis' she 'gin 
to droop un droop, un woud'n set nowhar but on 
de een er dat piazza whar she kin see de grave un 
nuver speak to nobody 'cep' dey ax er sump'n. Den 
one eb-nin jes ez de sun wuz settin' dar wuz er little 
streak er light fum it er shinin' on Mos' grave, un 
hit trabbul on presenly, un at las, hit crep' erlong 
easy-lack, un den tech my po' Mistis on de face. 
After while Miss Is'bel she come up ter whar her 
Ma wuz settin', ez she done ev'ry eb'nin' 'bout dat 
time, un she says : "Ma, shall we teck our little walk 
dis eb'nin', un put de roses on our dear un's grave ?' 
Her Ma did'n anser nuthin'. 

"Den Miss Is'bel tech her face wid 'er lips; 

119 



Prose and Verse 

un den — un den — Lawd, Moster, sich er cry ! un she 
drap. Den I run ter 'er, un I see what wuz de 
matter. My po' Mis' wuz settin' dar in dat cheer, 
daid! Yes, sah, daid! Un her eyes wuz set right 
on dat grave; un her face wuz ez white ez de roses 
dat Miss Is'bel brung ter 'er, dar wuz de light er dat 
sun er shinin' on it, un dem eyes look ter me ez ef 
dey hed seed sump'n' fo' Deff struck 'er; un de 
mouf wuz smilin' same ez ef 'fo' my po' Moster 
died. Dinah un me tuk Miss Is'bel up un k'y'ar' er 
ter 'er baid, un den I sont Jim fur de doctor un de 
preacher, un I tuck de buggy un brung Miss Nancy, 
Moster's sister, what lib er mile fum yere t' other 
side er ole Middleton. We lef Mis' settin' dar, un 
thowed er sheet ober 'er, case I heern say dat hit wuz 
gin de law ter move er daid body whin dey die dat 
way, 't'well de magister gin de order. 

"De preacher, Mos' Dan'l Crane, he came fus, 
un he brung Square Ewan', un presenly come Mos* 
Tom Jones, de doctur, un he lif de sheet, un de fus' 
look he gits at mistis he say, 'heart persease.' Den 
we calls Dinah un Keziah, un me un dem tecks Miss 
up un puts 'er in 'er baid, un den Miss Nancy come, 
un Moster, sich er mizzuble time ez we had ! Gawd 
knows, sah, I did'n know which way ter turn. 

"Yer see, de doctur he say he wuz mouty oneasy 
'bout Miss Is'bel. He say she wan' none too strong, 
no how, un dat de shock wuz er nuff" ter kill 'er, but 

120 



By Claudia Boddie Money- 
he stay dar mos', all de time, un, sah, to stan' up dar 
outenside dat do', un heur dat po' little gal er callin' 
fur 'er Ma, fur de worl' lack er lam' er blat'n fur 
de ole ewe, wuz mor'n I cou'd bar. I minded 'bout 
de time Miss Is'bel's pet lam' fell in de ole well, un 
we he'ur de bl'atin' ez plain ez day, un cood'n fin' 
whar it cum fum ; un po' little Miss Is'bel she wuz 
nigh 'stracted; un she run fum one een er dis place 
ter de yudder er callin', 'Coo, Sno' flake, Coo; wher 
iz yer, Snowy? Coo, Coo.' Un sho' miff, she she 
wuz de fus one foun' it. 

"De times we hed ter keep de life in Miss Is'bel ! 
De doctur come out ev'ry eb'nin' un maunin', un I 
say, 'Mos'r Jones, doan let dat lam' die.' He alius 
say, 'Hit is wid de Lawd, fur I kin see no way fur 
man ter hep 'er.' Un den I wen' down in de woods, 
un I get down aun dese ole rummatiz knees, un I 
pray un I pray; un I wras'l'd wid de Lawd fur Miss 
Is'bel's life, un He heerd dis ole black nigger; un 
one night de doctur he say, wid his mouf er smilin', 
'Brandy, dar's a turn fur de better. Now you and 
Dinah un Miss Nancy kin do fur 'er all she need.' 

"Den I say, 'Mos'r Jones, who gwine tell 'er her 
mar is buried clean out'n her sight?' Un he say, 
'Her An' Nancy 'ull have ter do it.' We wuz putty 
smartly skeered 'bout how she gwine teck it; un 
one eb'nin' 'bout dark, she say in er lettle weak voice, 
'An' Nancy!' Un Miss Nancy she go ter 'er, un 

121 



Prose and Verse 

kiss 'er, un say, 'Thank Gawd! yer knows yer ole 
Aunty once moY 

"Miss Is'bel she look at 'er right straight, lack she 
tryin' to 'member sump'n, un den 'er lips quiver, 
un she she say, 'Oh ! I 'members all. I doan wan'ner 
lib withouten my precious Ma'. Who's I got now? 
Ma and Pa bof gone un lef me. Why did'n yer 
lem me go?' Miss Nancy, she say: 'Twuz Gawd's 
will. We ain' gwine queshun His puppus.' Den 
Miss Is'bel she turn 'er face to de wall, un de tears 
roll down 'er face. 

"Miss Nancy gin 'er some draps, un den fo' long 
she wen' ter sleep, un so on, un so on, un t'wan many 
weeks fo' de roses wuz put aun two graves 'stead 
ner one, un dat po' gal lack er sper't 'gin ter teck 
de same seat whar her mammy set ; but de doctur he 
come, un he say dat ain' gwine nuver do ; un he tell 
Miss Nancy she mus' try ter fin' sump'n ter in'trust 
'er, un he say dat dar hed bin er gret battle, un dat 
dar wuz'n rum fur dem what wus hurt, in de hospit- 
tuls ; un dat she mought go inter town un git one er 
dem sogers what wuz gittin' well, un dat wood meek 
rum fur one on 'em, any how. Miss Nancy she 
'gree ter dis ; un she ax Miss Is'bel 'bout it. 

"Miss Is'bel say, lack she doan keer 'bout nuthin' ; 
'Do ez yer wan't ter, A'nty.' I seed all dis er settin' 
dar aun dat bench, un den I come to; un I wuz er 
thinkin' den ergin dat Miss Is'bel wuz er larnin' 

122 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

pretty fas' how to la'f un sing lack she-n useter do; 
but dar wuz alius sumpn' nur in 'er eyes what meek 
me think she wuz-n alius thinkin' 'bout dis woiT; 
but I did'n 'low dis ter nobody, but kep' it ter mer- 
sef. Well, dey wuz mar'd, un dey wuz ez lackly 
couple, und did look so gay un happy. Dar she 
ston', de spi't un image uv her Ma', un he er lookin' 
lack he co'd eat 'er, un saying' : 

" 'My darlin', I pray de joy uv dis day may nuver 
be tecken fum us !' un I say low, 'amen !' She nuver 
spoke; she gis look at 'im. I wuz dar, un I hearn 
un seen it all. 

"Two, thee days atter dat come de orders fur Mos' 
Kunnel ter jine de y'army. Miss Is'bel she stir roun' 
dar lack er bee roun' er honey com' er rubbin his 
watter tin un pilin de good vittuls in his soger bag, 
un his eyes wuz er follin' 'er ev'ry step she tuck. 

"She wuz bouten ter cry all de time, un he wan' 
fur behin'. 

"When de day come fur 'im ter go, he tuck Miss 
Is'bel in he arms un he say wid de tears stannin' in 
his eyes : 'An' Nancy, I leabes my darlin' ter you un 
Brandy un Dinah t'well I come back ergin, un may 
de Lawd do ter you ez yer do ter her !" 

"Whin he go, she foller 'im fer de gate. I hed ole 
Jewel in de buggy, un ez we driv off Mis'r Chall'ner 
he turn his haid un look back ; un dar wuz Miss Is'bel 
er stannin' leanin' aun de gate. Dem wile peach 

123 



Prose and Verse 

trees wuz er meetin' 'bove 'er haid, un some er dem 
yaller jesmun blooms wuz techin' de top uv it. De 
sun wuz shinin' right pine-blank aun 'er, un de tears 
wuz runnin' down 'er face. 

"I heern er kin' er soun' in Mis'r Chall'ner's thoat 
lack he los' his bref, un I look at him, un I see him 
chawin' his lips un snappin' his eyes, un he nuver 
teck em off'in Miss Is'bel twell de turn in de road 
shet 'er out. Jis ez we wuz gwine ter turn, he say : 
'Stop, Brandy;' un den he stan' up, un he kiss, un 
he kiss his han' ter 'er, un hilt out his arms to 'er er 
minit, un den he fol' em roun' his bres' lack he hed 
her dar, un ter save my ole black life, I couldn't hep 
cryin'. Twan' many munts 'fo' Miss Is'bel come 
dancin' inter de gyarden whar I wuz wucken', un 
say, 'Brandy, I'se ez happy ez er bird ; my dear hus- 
ban' is comin' termorrer night/ un I say, 'Ise glad, 
too, chile.' 

"Fur dat day un de nex' we wuz bizzy, I tell yer, 
trimmin' de house wid flowers, puttin' chickins in 
de killin' coop un lookin' up aigs. De hot cakes dat 
come outen dat stove, humph ! humph ! how dey did 
smell ! 

"Jis fo' sundown dat fus' day, dar come er man 
ter de gate un ax ter stay all night. He say he wuz 
er soger fum Muzzura gwine back ter de yarmy 
fum de hospittul. Miss Is'bel she smile, un she say, 
'Tell 'im yas, Brandy, he comes fum my husban's 

124 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

State — he is double welcome — mebbe he know 'im.' 
"Whin I axed 'im in, tin' he see Miss Is'bel, he 
wuz struck all er heap, she wuz so putty un' innersen' 
lookin'. She look fur de worl' lack er little gal, un* 
whin Miss Nancy say, 'My niece's husban' is fum yo' 
State,' he look lack he wuz struck, 'caze he didn'n' 
'spec* sich er young gal ez dat ter be er ma'd 'omun, 
un' he hed sot his eye aun 'er erready. 'What's his 
name?' he say. Miss Is'bel speak up right quick, 
un' sorter proud-lack, 'Kunnel Ned Chall'ner.' He 
didn' say nuthin' 't'all, but I seed 'im stealin' er look 
at 'er ev'vy now un' den whin dey wuz eatin' supper, 
un' he look sorry un' sorter werried. 

"De nex' maunin' he ax Miss Is'bel is she got er 
picter uv Mis'r Chall'ner. She say no, but she tell 
'im how he look. She ax 'im ef he knowed 'im; 
he say no, but he hearn tell awn 'im. Jis' 'fo' he lef 
he ax Miss Nancy cood he see 'er er minit. She tuck 
'im in de liberry, un dar he tole 'er dat Mis'r Ned 
Chall'ner wa'r er mar'd man 'fo' he lef home; dat 
he war at his weddin' in Sain' Louis two yer 'fo' dat ; 
un' he say, he kin prove it. Miss Nancy she say, 
'Why, den, yer'el hat ter prove it 'fo' I b'leeves it' 

"He say, 'I will, jis' gim me time,' un' she say, 
'How long yer wants ?' He say 't'well dis eb'nin'/ 
un she say 'all right/ but when she comes out en dar, 
she say 'Brandy, my precious chile, is got her deff- 
blow,' un den she tole me. 

125 



Prose and Verse 

"Me un 'er ? we watch dat road anxious, all dat 
day. 

"Fus' thing yer know, we seed Mis'r Chall'ner 
comin' down de hill thew de fiel'-way 'bout two miles 
off; un den we heerd er hause's huffs comin' down 
de t'uther road fum ole Middleton-way, whar de 
sojer's camp wuz; un dar we seed dat sojer man 
from Muzzura. He got dar fus' ; un' he handid er 
ole newspaper ter Miss Nancy, un' pinted ter sump'n 
aun it. Her han' trimbled same ez er leaf in de win', 
whin she tuck it; un whin she read it she moughty 
nigh drap. She kep' er twis'n 'er hans un say'n, 
' What shill I do? What shill I do?' De soger he 
say, 'Ma'am, I hope yer doan feel hard ter me 'bout 
dis ?' She say, 'No, sah ; but you had better go ;' un' 
he did go, un' dat quick. 

"Den er hard look come ter 'er eyes, un' she call 
Miss Is'bel an' day wen' in her rum, un' den she tole 
'er; un' den — un' den — my Gaud, sah, hit's in my 
yurs t'well now — I heerd sich er scream! T'wuz 
lack somebody hed hed er knife stuck in dey bres', 
un de blood wuz er chokin' 'em. I heerd 'er fall, 
un' I run wid all my might. Dar lay Miss Is'bel 
lookin' lack she wuz ez daid ez her po' Ma. Jis' at 
dat minit I heerd Mis'r Chall'ner's voice. Miss 
Nancy she bresh pas' me, un' she say, 'Is'bel is done 
faint ; let 'er be t'well I come back' un she walk same 
ez she wuz er piece er marble movin'. I shet de do', 

126 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

un ston' right dar. She tuck Mis'r Chall'ner in de 
liberry, un' de fus' thing I know, I see Miss Nancy 
runnin' lack somebody wile, un' Mis'r Chall'ner fol- 
lin' 'er. She come right aun inter whar Miss Is'bel 
wuz, un' whin she see her ergin, do blood wuz er 
po'in' outen her mouf, un' her eyes wuz star'n', un' 
she was daid sho' nuff . 

"Den Miss Nancy scream, un' say : 'I tole 'er, un' 
hit kilt 'er !' 

"Den she drap down, un' from dat minit she wuz 
ravin', 'stracted, un' she air in de 'sylum ter dis day. 

"Mr. Chall'ner tuck Miss Is'bel up in his arms, 
un' he 'peak lack he gwine go 'stracted hissef. He 
call 'er so moanful ; un' he say "twuz er lie my darl- 
in ! Hear me what I say, my po' wife,' but she wuz 
deef un' dum' den, un' did'n turn so saf eyes awn 
'im, nuver ergin. 

"When I ax 'im what he hed ter say, he turn aun 
me, sah, lack er wile beas' ; un' he say, 'Go, ole man ! 
git outen my sight afo' I does yer harm.' I wuz 
skee-ed mun, un I lit out fum dar; un' den I sont 
Dinah in dar, un' I wen' fur de doctur un' de 
preacher, un' dey shet Miss Nancy up in 'er rum, un' 
lef Keziah ter watch 'er; un' de doctur he gin Miss 
Nancy some draps ter meek her sleep; but no draps 
nuver brung her senses back. 

"I hear Mos' Jones say ter Mos' Dan'el Crane: 
' 'Tis de same heart-brek what tuk 'er mammy.' Dey 

127 



Prose and Verse 

buried my pc' Miss Is'bel in er big berryin' ground 
Mis'r Chall'ner hed in Sain' Louis, un' fum dat day 
ter dis, Dinah un' me un' Keziah un' Jim hez lib 
yere, un' I ain' nuver larn de trufe 'bout dat time 
t'well yit. Me un' Dinah we goes ev'vy eb'nin' ter 
dem two graves, un' we lays er big bunch er roses 
aun de bres' uv Mis' un Moster ; but right t' ween um 
we hez de biggis' bunch er all, but dey is little buds, 
Moster, jis' er peepin' outen de green leaves. S'cuse 
dis ole nigger, sah ; I c'a'rn talk much mo' 'bout dis. 
Me un Dinah is jis' er waitin', sah, jis' er waitin'. 

"What dat you say? 

"Twa'n' Miss Is'bel's husband what was ma'd; 
'twuz his cuzzun wid de same name ? Day wuz bofe 
name fur dey Gran'pa? Den Gawd forgive me fur 
all the cusses I is axed aun dat man. You's Mis'r 
Chall'ner? How come I didn' know yer? Caze 
yer is so changed? Dat's a fac', Master, so yer is. 
Yer say Miss Nancy done gaun ter de Laud, un' dat 
you is come ter see after me, un Dinah, un Keziah ? 

"Master, you is hed trubbul, un' I ain' nowise 
wonnerin' dat yer haid is white, un' yer face lone- 
some-lack. 

"You Dinah, come yere. What I got ter tell yer, 
'omun', ull bar tellin'." 



128 



The White Carnation 

(A transcription in blank verse of Prof. Weltmer's 
lecture simile of the white carnation.) 

I cut a green bud from the parent stem. 

Naught showed, save where the wounded child had 

from 
Her mother's side been torn in wanton sport. 
She could not tell the story of her pain, 
Nor parting, give one sweet caress to her 
Whose teeming breast had given her life and joy. 
The vital spark now sleeping deep within 
Her grieving heart was dim, and in the Earth's 
Chill clasp, she grew forlorn, and drooped and feared 
The night — so far away from Mother-love. 

But soft ! Some gentle, friendly touch she knew 
Linger'd to kiss her into gladsome smiles — 
'Twas but a zephyr's dewy breath that thrilled 
Her soul, and wooed her with the Song of Life. 
And straight, the slender leaves, refreshed and strong, 
Looked up to heaven's fair fields where happy stars 
Sent their mild rays into her upturned face. 
Those ever-twinkling stars, who long had known 
The Wisdom of the bending sky which gave 
From out her bounteous store a wealth of tears 
That fell, in pity for her helpless state; 
And with their magic pow'r the weary frame 
Restored once more to strength, and health and peace. 

129 



Prose and Verse 

The night was spent; and in the rosy East 

The Sun flamed up, and cast his glances warm 

O'er all the floral world, now wrapt in mist. 

His ardent glances all too soon had found 

My em'rald spray, from parent plant purloined ; 

And neath the heavy shade of clustering vines 

And great-leaved plants which spread their green'ry 

near, 
I placed the jar, which held my nursling firm, 
And left her there, a temple strong to build 
For blossoms rare, -and sweeter than the rose, 
With fragrance rich, like spices from those Isles 
Where torrid Suns beam hotly down and breed 
Odors potent, which fill the heavy air. 

I watched her as she slept from day to day, 

While in her bosom's core those Forces wrought 

Which sent into the blessed Mother-Earth 

The dainty threads, which sought for nourishment, 

To give her pow'r her purpose to fulfill. 

Her leaflets green held in their inmost heart 

A living Germ. Instinct with more than life 

She felt the word speak in her tender form, 

And heard the Voice, harmonious, sound each note 

That vibrates full in Nature's hidden cells, 

Wherever found without her great expanse. 

Paler she grew within the shaded realm, 
And turned toward the space where sun-rays bright 
Oft sparkled through, and met his wooing bold 

130 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

With eager gaze of sympathy, and spoke 

If not in sweet-toned phrase, in language mute : 

"I need thee, Come ! Drive coldness from my soul 

And clasp me to thy heart of glowing flame, ^ 

And make my pulses leap with Love's delight." 

Thus Nature's child her deep, mad passion flung 

As incense 'pon the altar of the Sun ; 

And in his fervid, fond embrace was bred 

The buds which came to crown the full-grown stem; 

And resting close within their sheathes, until 

The zephyrs played about her in her pride, 

And moisture-dripping eaves their blessings shed, 

And the Sun, with am'rous gaze flashed into 

Her being's depths his burning tale of love. 

Each flow'r-child peeped into the new-found-world, 

And one by one unfolded all its charms, 

Lovely to look upon in face and form, 

Drooping their faces pure, with modest mien, 

Yet hung'ring now for something more than all 

The beauty hid in fringed petals white. 

She strains into being her fettered thought, 

In one splendid moment of fragrant breath 

*Exhaled from the bloom— her spirit was born ! 

A mind has come to dwell upon the earth, 

And builds its home, perchance, most fair to see. 

Its glistening marble walls shine in the Sun. 

The golden glory of its dome reflects 

*The white carnation has no perfume until it bursts into 

full bloom. 

131 



Prose and Verse 

The radiance of his beams at early morn. 

At noontide hour, he all his fierceness pours, 

And evening's glow diffused through all the world 

Tinges the marble with its roseate hue. 

Its windows, open wide, let in the tints 

Blended in beauty in the azure sky. 

It stands a fabric worthy to enshrine 

Some glorious angel from the realms of bliss. 

In one fair room emblazoned shields are hung. 
'Tis here the Mind its record keeps; and thoughts 
Like magic, spring to life; 'tis Reason's home, 
Where Logic's viewless pen inscribes each truth, 
And links of golden chains are ever forged. 

Another chamber near, is yet unclosed; 

Strange emblems are engraved upon the door ; 

Mystic words in golden scrolls are set 

Within the arch which rises to the height 

Where snow-white walls meet the great, curving dome. 

From her own threshold Reason waits to learn 

The message which the "still small voice" shall bring. 

For whispers like the wind-harps weird tones, 

When summer breezes breathe upon its strings. 

From out the silence, often faintly come. 

Longing to know the secret hidden there, 
He stood before the fateful door, and spoke: 
"Oh ! ye who dwell within, I am alone 
And wretched, in a weary world, and lost 

132 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

Amid the discords of its mighty wastes; 
Cold and forlorn, I sit on Reason's throne, 
And find nowhere within my Empire's reach, 
k Warmth or solace for my sorrowing heart." 

The answer came, reverberating clear, 
And thrilled him with the music of its sound : 
"Go read the scrolls, and let their wisdom speak." 
"Love Divine in these sacred precincts reigns." 
"Life everlasting shalt Thou find within." 
"Within Eternal Wisdom is enthroned." 
"Enter, that thou may'st know that I am God." 

Thus read the scrolls and — through his being ran 

A tremor, as though some tender touch had 

Swept soft the strings of Hope, and music made. 

The door upon its noiseless hinges swung, 

And rythmic strains, like dream-notes cadenced low 

By singers, invisible, rose and swelled 

And echoed through the chamber full and sweet. 

"We are the voices of the Spirit Mind. 

Truth, Love and Faith — we are the mystic three. 

Mercy, Patience and white-souled Purity 

From us are born, and Hope and Peace and Joy 

Sing paeans of praise — harmonies Divine — 

And altars raise where burn celestial fires — 

And censers bright of fragrant incense swing 

Before the face of Him whom we adore. 

For in this temple, pure and holy, Mind 

Shall find its Spirit-mate, Eternal Truth." 

133 



Prose and Verse 
SENT WITH SOME VIOLETS. 

Go, pretty flower, and let thy mission be 

To teach remembrance! 
And though thy freshness soon shall pass away 
The perfume of thy short and lovely life, 
Like gentle deeds and lowly, 
Shall linger forever in the hearts 
Of those who have dwelt so oft upon 
Thy sweetness and ever blessed 

Thy ministrations. 
Lovely violet ! blue-eyed darling of every clime, 
And every age, take hold upon the heart 
Of her to whom I send thee, and whisper: "Love 
Unchanging as these flowers' sweet perfume 

Is my fond heart to thee." 

MORNING. 

The joyous morn of summer-time is here, 
With all its freight of subtle sweets 
And budding green of trees and od'rous flowers. 
The birds on wing from dizzy heights let fall 
Showers of melody and notes of love on all ! 

TO A VIOLINIST. 
To Robert Bernays. 

Harmonious sounds that fill me with delight 
There's sure no passion of the human heart 

But is entangled in those trembling notes, 

The sweetest saddest strains within the reach of art. 

134 



By Claudia Boddie Money 

Alas, its charm! each tender, melting air 

Hath wondrous pow'r o'er weary hearts like mine. 
It seems as if the, quivering strings would break 

'Neath all the mighty weight of happiness divine. 

Thou sacred Muse, who lends to human thought 
Such mystic joy, such subtle grace and fire! 

To Thee I leave no avenue of sense unclosed, 
When artist-fiingers touch th' immortal lyre. 

IN MEMORY OF MRS. CLAUDIA MONEY 

HILL. 

Translated from the German by her mother. 

I own it: He bruises, He pierces me sore; 

But the hammer and chisel affect me no more. 

Shall I tell you the reason? It is that I see 

The Sculptor has carved out a bright saint for me. 

I shrink from no suffering, how painful soe'er, 
When once I can feel that God's hand is near ; 
For soft on the anvil the iron shall glow, 
When the Smith, with His hammer, deals blow on 
blow. 

God presses me hard — but He gives patience, too; 
And I say to myself : 'Tis no more than my due ; 
And no tone from the organ can swell in the breeze, 
Till the Organist's fingers press down the keys. 

So come, then, and welcome; the blow and the pain; 
Without them, no mortal can heaven attain; 

135 



Prose and Verse 

For what can the sheaves on the barn floor avail, 
Till the Thresher shall beat out the chaff with His flarh 

J Tis only a moment, God chastens with pain; 
Joy follows on sorrow, like shunshine on rain; 
Then bear I what God on my spirit shall lay.. 
Be dumb, but when tempted to murmur, I pray. 



APR 9 1910 



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